Mount Leinster

In August 2009 I was lucky enough to work on the 3rd edition of the Tour of Ireland and rub shoulders with the likes of [multiple Tour de France winner] Lance Armstrong and the fastest man on the Pro Tour, Mark Cavendish. The former rode around Pheonix park a few days later with 1,000+ eager cyclists. I managed to ride up front for a while and chat to the Texan for a bit, which was nice. He's not everybody's cup of tea, but he deserves a lot of credit for the work he has done in raising funds and Cancer awareness through his Livestrong Foundation.

Stage One of the ToI took the riders over Mount Leinster which is the highest of the Blackstairs Mountains at 796 metres (2,605 ft) and straddles the counties of Carlow, Wexford and Kilkenny. It was my first time on top of this particular mountain and I swore I would come back to cycle it for myself. The views are splendiferous. I am open to correction on this one, but I reckon it is possible to see 6 or 7 counties from the "Nine Stones", the road that passes just beneath the summit.

Myself and the missus were shacked up in Lyrath Estate for the weekend so it was the perfect opportunity to head off for a couple of hours on the bike and get a bit of training done on unfamiliar turf.  I plotted out my route and headed off on what was to be a lovely spin.  I found the road surfaces really good and the omnipresent multidirectional wind that I'm used around Dublin and Wicklow was nowhere to be found, thank f&$k!   

This route is more difficult travelling to the Nine Stones from Borris than coming from the Bunclody side, which is the direction the ToI took last year. Passing the Rathanna / Tomduff junction you get a little sample of what's to come. After reaching the Nine Stone’s car park you turn right across the cattle grid into a shaded forest passage where it starts to kick up straight away.

3k from the summit the views of the Antenna can be quite deceptive. The closer I got to it the further away its seemed to be and with sections of the last 2k averaging around 16%, I was praying for more gears if not wishing for the legs of a mountain goat.  The front wheel on my bike was lifting off the ground at times, such was the gradient.  A photographer called Sonnie took a few shots of my grimacing face as I climbed, he was on his way down by foot.  I caught up with him for a brief chat on the decent as I had been unable to mutter anything coherent to him on the way up.  When he emails me the pics I'll post them here...

If you're from the area or even from elsewhere in Ireland and haven't been to Mount Leinster, I would recommend setting up base in a nearby town like Kilkenny and conquering it for yourself. And afterwards treat yourself to a feed a pints in Langton's by way of celebration...