Easter Egg Rolling in the Mournes!

Happy Easter everyone! 

In the mountains we decided to celebrate easter with a bit of egg rolling, but first we had to get to the mountains. Drew Bradley decided that he needed to get some multi discipline training under his belt and so cycled to the Mourne Mountains.

He was absolutely delighted to see Oonagh Thompson and Dominic Ruud Berry on the way. It gave him a massive boost. Something that will be very much needed on the Challenge! After 30 miles on the bike in a good time of 1 hour and 53 minutes, Drew arrived here...

Slieve Donard was covered in beautiful sunshine, apart from the top which wrapped itself in a damp blanket of cloud. Something for the team to look forward to later in the day. 

The mountains were teaming with people enjoying the long weekend and getting some fresh air. We decided to climb Slieve Donard, the largest of the Mourne Mountains. Hopefully the above photo shows just how busy the mountains were. This is the view from the saddle looking up Slieve Donard (which is steeper than any of the photos do justice to).

After a stop for tea and a sandwich we continued up. The cloud wrapped us up and a steady drizzle clung to us. 

It was lovely to have so many people out on the mountains and to hear everyone encourage each other so much. There were lots of 'nearly there's to be heard and plenty of 'not far now's floating around too!

The team decided to celebrate Easter with some traditional egg rolling. After a hotly contested bout of egg rolling Ruud emerged victorious with Oonagh a close second and Drew a distant, distant third. We then ate the eggs, free range of course! 

 

A great day and the team is feeling really good about the challenge!

The inner monologue of a cyclists

Having done plenty of bike rides recently and not been able to upload photo of the rides we decided to share some of our thoughts while out riding. Cycling can take you to some strange and wonderful places...

Oh man this is going to be a long ride. I could do a little less, if I don't go up that road. Hmmmm. No for goodness sake you're out no, just get on with it. The sooner you get going the sooner you get back for a brew.

Right that hill. The hill is the key. It'll be ok after the hill.

If I lie here, If I just lay herrrrre. Would you lie with me and just forget the world. Lets waste time, chaaasing cars. Around our head. 

Countdown was a great show. Who presents that now? I'll have a P please Bob, ha! Hold on, that's not right.

Bloody hell this hill is steep!

If you go any slower you'l fall of the bike! Don't look up, don't look up. Just cycle until you get there. Oh bloody hell I knew I shouldn't have looked up! How can I be peddling this hard and not go anywhere!

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I love being at the top of a hill! Downhill here I come! Oh that's fast. Very fast. Too fast! Oh Sh1t! Brake brake brake brake brake! Urrgh I'm in too high a gear.

Half way to tea.

Des Lynam did countdown for a while but I don't think he does it now. Is countdown even on now?

Wind. Oh no don't get windy!

That car hasn't seen me. Don't pull out! Look! I'm in a bright yellow top you HAVE to see me!! Good, he saw me. Man it's got to hurt hitting a car on a bike.

I can't wait for a cup of tea.

Carol Vorderman doesn't do it now either. What happened to Countdown?

The Sum coming up easy as the rain cam tumbling down. Comin up easy, not on this hill.

Bloody hills. It's not even a hill, it's barely a slope I'm just knackard.

Home! Tea... awesome!

Some of the best cycle jerseys around...

As if wearing lycra in winter isn't eye catching enough we found some of the some of the best looking, funniest or just plain cool jerseys around. Happy cycling!
(The titles above the images are links to the website that each shirt is available from)

Down to the bone

Something for the more gothic bike riders amongst us, or those who just like a good laugh. This shirt is bound to have people taking a second look as you cycle past. Not sure if the matching leggings are available yet but we will keep an eye out!

Crash test dummies

Team member Sarah Beale owns one of these little beauties. The subtle, delicate colouring is one of the key features of this particular item, allowing the rider to blend into their surroundings. Nice.

 Subtle hints

The writing on this shirt sort of says it all. It voices a sentiment shared by all road cyclists and anyone who rides a bike. In fact I think everyone shares the sentiment. 

Suit you sir

A personal favourite of Drew Bradley. Worried about not looking professional after your commute to work? Worry no more! This smart shirt, tie and jacket number is just the trick for the cyclist commuter who doesn't have space for a change of clothes. Arrive to work ready to get business done in this cheeky Franklin number. 

PLEASE NOTE: wearing this shirt will not explain your red face and profuse sweating. It may also leave your colleagues asking why you're wearing a lycra suit... ignore them, you look great!

Beans means... cycling?

Well, this one is just plain funny.

SPAM!

Admit it, you like Spam! You can try and kid yourself but you know you like it. A poll of 67.5 vegetarians and vegans showed that spam was the single most difficult meat to give up. It registered a whoping 9.8 /10 on the Meats That Are Difficult To Stop Eating (MTADTSE) scale, leaving it's nearest rival , goat, lagging in second with a rating of only 6 / 10 on the MTADTSE scale. You can't argue with stats people. 

Dark Side of the Moon

There are hundreds if not thousands of epic band / album bike shirts, we just picked one of our favourites. AC/DC, Rush, Bob Marley, Pink Floyd (obviously), Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead and Led Zepplin are just a few of the bands you may see. 

There are hundreds of great shirts out there, if you think we've missed some of the best let us know! 

Happy cycling! 

The Team...

We are proud to announce the team for The 3 Peaks Cycle Challenge!

Each has a page dedicated to them and a small amount of information about them. We'll be telling you a bit more about each person as we go along and they'll be keeping you up to date with fund raising, training and any other information you might need!

The Challenge...

The reason for this blog is so friends, family and anyone else who likes a challenge can follow the progress of the 3 Peaks Cycle Team.

Our aim is to raise as much money for charity as possible. We know that people are bombarded with requests to give money to charity, so we decided to earn it.

The 3 peaks challenge is a popular money raising activity and rightly so. It involves climbing the 3 of the highest mountains in the UK, namely Ben Nevis (Scotland), Scafell Pike (England) and Snowdon (Wales). Well deciding that this wasn't tough enough we decided to make it just a bit more difficult. We decided to cycle between the highest 3 mountains in the UK.

Simply put this will involve climbing 3 mountains and cycling 450 miles in 5 days.

Please check back, there's lots more information to come...