Paul May

Electric Picnic was *amazing*. We saw some great bands, had great food and the camping was fun too. All the photos from the weekend are up on Flickr. Peruse at will.

I made it! Escape from Alcatraz was everything I hoped it would be; tough, fast, exciting. Hotter than I would have liked, but an absolutely great race. This is my full report of the lead up to the race, the race itself and the journey home. Read the rest of this entry »

We made it! On Monday afternoon we successfully completed the Camino De Santiago from St. Jean de Pied de Port in the South of France, to Santiago De Compostela in Spain. It was an epic journey; 850K in ten days of cycling through some amazing scenery and over some daunting climbs. I’m back in Belfast now, just settling back into work. Today/tomorrow I’ll post a more detailed description of the journey with photos.

We spent last night in Molinaseca, about 6K before Ponferrada. It was a lovely place, somewhere I´d like to visit again some day. Today was a tough 88K to Triacastela, about 21K from Saria. Some of the climbs today went on and on…then on some more. Thankfully we´ve found nice accomodation in Triacastela, and are settling down for a rest tonight, before taking on more hills tomorrow. We´re on track for two more 80K days to take us to Santiago De Compestela in time for the flight on Tuesday. I´ll be sorry to come to the end of this amazing journey. Two more days to go!

We´ve arrived in León for our rest day - 500K into the trip with another 400K to go. Yesterday was a tough 110K slog in very cold, then very warm weather. Needless to say we went out last night and took advantage of not having to cycle today :) For the last few days we´ve been cycling across Spain´s northern plains; a huge tract of dry, flat country. Some of it is farm land, other parts are just open plain. The cycling hasn´t been technically difficult since we left Burgos; more an endurance test..a slog. Everybody is feeling pretty good, and glad to be stopping in one place for a full day. John has been having some knee problems, but is getting stronger.  I left my phone in the last town, which is a bit of a pain, but no problems otherwise. Anyway, that´s all for now. Rest today, then 4 days, 400K :) (edit - actually only 350K, but more like 370K with our few wrong turns)

We’re off on our Camino De Santiago cycle tomorrow :) I’ve had a hectic few days in work, and I’m only back from London a couple of hours, but thankfully I have most of the packing done. All that needs to be done is to put my bike into the box, tape it up - and wait for the flight tomorrow. Worryingly, I can’t find my booking reference for the flight - but hopefully that just means I’ve deleted the mail; not that my booking hasn’t gone through, or I’ve gone senile and have forgotten to book the flight altogether. Anyway, that’s it for now. Off we go (hopefully…).

A week from today, we’ll be off. 12 days, 800K (and then some…depending on the exact route and how often we get lost), leaving from St. Jean de Pied de Port in the South of France, travelling the Camino De Santiago through Northern Spain all the way to Santiago De Compestela. I can’t wait!

I think cycling is transformative and very special (I’ve said this before…), so it’ll be amazing to get to see a different country from the saddle. My bike is being serviced (new front derailleur cable, fitting of a pannier frame, possibly replace the bottom bracket), so I’ll pick that up on Saturday when I’m back in Dublin. Other than that there’s not too much to do, I’ve packed my gear so that I can bring it home at the weekend and leave it there until I fly out (from Dublin) next Thursday. It’s going to be great; I’ll post up before we leave.

On Saturday seven of the group who’ll be doing the Camino De Santiago cycle in September made the spin to Glendalough from Dublin. Everybody made the cycle without problems, and we’ll all be ready for the Camino. There was a bit of rain on the way down, but only for the last 45 minutes or so. The trip was cool, we stayed in the An Oige hostel to make a night out of it, and came back in the sunshine on Sunday. Here’s the cheesy group shot we took at the Upper Lake.

Myself and the Ciaráns (Lennon and Vipond) took part in the Wicklow 200 yesterady - a 200Km cycle from the South of Dublin down into Wicklow, looping back to Dublin for the finish. It was a fantastic day.

Read the rest of this entry »

The decision is made, the flights are booked - in September I’ll be cycling the Camino De Santiago from the South of France through the Pyrenees and northern Spain; finishing in Santiago De Compestela. This is going to be a great journey; at the moment there are five of us taking on this 800Km (and then some) route - I can’t wait!