Notes
Long cycle with Jan from Portlaoise up the Slieve Bloom mountains and back again. Pretty windy against us on the way to Abbeyleix. From Abbeyleix to Mountrath it was ok as well. Once we hit the hills it got pretty tough. 2 big hills. First one was very tough (550m climb) and we really struggled up it. 2nd one was not as high but it was a long slow climb and it hurt as well. 7.5km non stop climb. Felt good on most of the climbs but we took the odd breather on the way up. The descents were very fast. Left knee gave me a few problems on the way around but not bad enough to stop. We had planned to do 85km but the route ended up being exactly 100km. My ass was wrecked by the end :(