Friday 13 May 2016

Cycling the Isle of Man TT course

'Experience the thrill of the challenging 37 and three quarter mile mountain course packed full of famous turns.' said the guidebook.
Unfortunately, we didn't have access to a motorbike, so we went for it on our bicycles.
We set off from the little seaside town of Ramsey and then straight up the Hairpin, climbing for six miles up the Mountain Road.
Once at the top there was beautiful views all around us and an incredibly strong tailwind that blew us all the way to Douglas. It was one of my best rides ever as we freewheeled down the smooth tarmaced road reaching speeds of nearly 38 miles per hour.
It felt really fast and dangerous, but was put into perspective when we reached the official start line and saw a big poster that said that the motorbikers reach speeds of up to 200 miles per hour.
We carried on round the route and soon met up with the wind again, this time straight into our faces making the return section really hard work.
We also didn't find any coffee stops so took a couple of breaks in bus shelters to eat our emergency rations of sultanas, chocolate and shortbread. I also discovered that if you shove everything in your mouth at once it makes a delicious gourmet style treat.
We made it back home in three hours.

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