The original plan for today was a bit of a long lie and a later start because Day 1 was so long.
The football fixtures changed all that however as Celtic are away to Hearts today and a victory would secure the league title with 4 games remaining.
Kick off is 14.15h and it´s over 100km to get to Dundalk so another early start it must be 🤷♂️
We are invited to Kehoe´s Bar which is the home of The Tain Bhoys Celtic Supporters Club to watch the match so we decided to leave at 07.30h sharp.
A long gradual climb south out of Belfast greeted me as soon as I left the hotel. It seemed to be never ending but unlike Glasgow yesterday the traffic lights were kinder and much fewer. When I turned right into the countryside to head for the first stop in Banbridge this was the view that greeted me 💚
The rolling hills of County Down were an absolute joy to cycle and as you can see from the photo we were once again lucky with the weather 🌞
Banbridge was 48km into the day so I was ready for the stop when I arrived. It´s amazing how welcome a sight the refreshment stop is when its basically just the back door of a van opened up in a car park 🤣
Next stop was in Newry to visit the Willie Maley statue. A veritable shrine for Celtic fans like us, we had to plan a route via the memorial. Willie Maley was Celtic manager for an incredible 43 years 😮 hard to imagine that in this day and age.
The list of trophies he won is so extensive that they had to be printed on the back of the base of the statue.
Now lets get to Dundalk, there is a title to win!
The route from Newry to Dundalk took us through the famous "Ring of Gullion", designated as an area of incredible natural beauty, it was easy to see why 💚
There had been a strong headwind since around 10.00h and it was getting stronger. It was really slowing me down but wasn´t going to make me late for the match ⚽ 🚴♂️
When I seen the first road sign indicating a speed limit in kph I knew I was in the Republic and therefore very close to Dundalk and the Bar.
The match was keenly contested and Hearts were having a real go at Celtic until they had a man red carded. That changed the complexion of the game and it was only a matter of time until Celtic scored. The match finished Hearts 0 - Celtic 2 securing back to back titles for the Bhoys in Green 😊💚🍀
I had a couple of 0,0% 🍻to celebrate as I´m tee total until I get to Seville 🙄
I stopped taking alcohol 14 days before leaving and will abstain for the whole challenge. When you drain your body of energy it needs to recover, if you plan on repeating the feat every day then your body only has a limited time to recover and it will do so much more efficiently if there is no alcohol in your system, simples 😇
As soon as the game was over I found the hotel and was delighted to see a bath tub in my room 🛀😍
Distance covered 105.0 Km
Climbing 1,151 M
Moving time 05h 23m 10s
Summary:
Pretty tough going after yesterday because of the early start, time pressure and the headwind.
Difficulty rating 7/10
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