Vee Virgin

I had heard great reports from lads in the club (MBCC) about a spin around the "Vee" out in the Knockmealdown mountains. What was promised was rough rocky open mountains with some savage downhills so it was hard to ignore the advertised spin on the club website.

With my bike out of action I borrowed a hardtail off Fred, an On-One Inbred which i was told "could be held together with bits of coke cans". A quick inspection later and after replacing some missing bolts and lobbing on some Minions, she was ready to rock.

Myself and Hefner hit the road in my car and met up with Scully, Brian, Eoin T, Jakob, Kimjongil and PHD where we shuttled to the top of the mountain in some cars and left the others at the bottom in Clogheen.

From what I understand, we did a figure of eight around the mountains. The first loop was the shorter of the 2 with a handy enough climb followed by a fun descent. A long enough drag back up the road took us back to the carpark where started the second loop up a really technical steep climb. The single ring on freds bike broke me on this climb and I had to ride it with a "flat out or stop" approach where I would blaze past everyone only to be passed again while I tried to keep my breakfast down, gasping for breath on the side of the track. Every nasty bit of that climb was worth it for downhills that followed. The first of which was down a steep boggy side of the mountain where it was recommended you avoid the beaten track and find your own way down, off piste. Out with the allen keys and down with saddle and away we went. I took it fairly slow and steady and still barely made it down without being pitched over the bars.

The next downhill was fuckin nuts. As Eoin put it, " your booting along over the rocks thinking this is rough as hell and then you hit the rock garden". It was the roughest track i have ever ridden, worse than anything in Alp d'Huez, the home of the Mega Avalanche. Freds poor hardtail got the shit kicked out of it (sorry fred) but luckily most of his parts including his wheels were off a downhill bike. Lots of smiles and stories at the end of that section. A short hike a bike later and we came to a split on the track where you had a choice of routes, one of which was down a chute with massive loose rocks everywhere, no sign of ground below them either. Myself and Eoin took this route which I started to regret once I got going on it, it was much harder than it looked but there was no stopping once you got going. Very relieved to make it down in one piece. There was a flat out section down a smooth enough track next, into the tuck position racing each other to the bottom.

The final downhill was unreal too, very loose and rocky again but this time there was a few switchbacks thrown in for good measure. I chased Jakob down it with old man Scully roaring at me from behind. There was some honk of burning brakes coming from my Hopes, which were fairly rubbish to be honest but that could have been due to set up. Wont be rushing out to buy a pair after the days biking.

We made our way to the Lucky Leprechaun Pub in Clogheen afterwards for a well deserved pint of the black stuff and a few more of PHD's twisted jokes.

Thanks to Eoin and Scully for the guided tour, looking forward to another lash of it soon.

Stan