Nissan Kilmacud Crokes / Breast Cancer Ireland M2M 2026 Donie's Blog Day 1

Well,I've made it through day 1,what a beautiful day today. Day 1 is always hectic,up at 3 30 this morning to be in the club for 4 am to meet the bus, which departed at 4 30. 25 cyclists and Ronnie Murray, one of the support crew,whose done M2M 4 times himself. About 20 cyclists made their own way down to West Cork the day before to avoid the long journey on the bus and have a bit more sleep before day 1 started.

Bikes arrived at Mizen head around 9 and the early travellers set of a while after that.

We endured the bus for 4hrs before arriving in Skibbereen for breakfast, which was lovely,straight back on to the bus and down to Mizen for around 10 45. Took about 15mins to get organised, check bikes etc and then we were OFF !! Weather was beautiful  and 7 of us headed out together with Killarney our final destination, 125 km away and with 2 mountains in between. 

I explained to the group that we would be using a single file rotation system which is very common in cycling on narrow roads,everyone nodded in agreement. So off we went. By 5k down the road it was absolute carnage on the road,fellows were jumping out of the line at random times and moving to the front,everyone is supposed to stay in line and take their turn at the front as the leaders move back down the inside of the line to the rear. So everyone does equal number for turns at the front(which is the hardest). By the time I figure out what was going on, one guy had done 5 turns at the front for the one I had done !! Turns out 2 of the lads didn't have a clue what the rotation system was but were afraid say it !! Once we sorted this we zipped along the road 30k more to  Bantry where we planned to stop for a quick coffee, unfortunately the cafe we planned to go to was closed so be cycled into town to find another one, which we did but when we sat down outside we realised one guy was missing. Apparently when one of the faster groups had passed us a few minutes earlier William got inadvertently ducked into their group and was 3km outside Bantry before he realised he was in the wrong group . He returned to us,not too happy,and had a very quick coffee as we were about to leave.

Weather was spectacular now and really warm,we did another 20 km into Glengarrif where we stopped at a garage for lunch. 20min break and back on the road and up the Caha Pass,tough climb in this weather but we all made it to the summit. Then down a  long winding road to Kenmare,stopping for a quick ,badly needed ice cream  !! From here it was up another mountain,Molls Gap,tough also and then finally down into Killarney for the night,arriving at 7pm,very long day !!

All 7 lads made it quite comfortably which bodes wall for the next 4 days.

We're losing one member to Bombers "Yellow" group tomorrow,aptly named if you ask me !!

We gain an additional 5 members and we'll be the "Blue" group from tomorrow. My second in command will be Kevin Bannon,same as 2 yrs ago and I've put him in charge navigation, as has a good sense of direction and this time we're taking a completely different, mid section,of our route ,up through the Midlands. Let's hope he's better at navigation then minding his bike !! 2 weeks ago he left it in for a service and basically got a DNR (do not resuscitate) report back from the bike shop !! Luckily he was able to borrow pat Halpins bike as he's away.

Lovely hotel here in Killarney but a few lads not too happy with their room, turns out a "triple" room in Kerry has a double and single bed in it,ructions at reception for half an hour,but all sorted eventually  !!

I'm back sharing with my old mate Mark,the scorer,Cregg for the 5th time on these trips so could be very eventful in our bedroom  !!

But actually when I got back to the room tonight he had my bed turned down for me !!

We're off to Neenagh tomorrow, 160 k,few bits of climbs but nothing like today,so relatively easy....if nothing goes wrong !!

Be interesting to see how the new Blue group works out and a big test for our new navigator. We'll have our first electric bike participating,should be interesting too.

OK,I can hardly keep my eyes open at this stage,so off for a well earned kip,hopefully there'll be no disturbances !!