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Joe Barr, the former pro road racer
turned ultra cyclist, has set a new record for riding coast to coast across the
Republic and then back again.
Barr completed the 480-mile, or 772km, ride from west to east and turning his bike around at the halfway mark in Co Wicklow and riding back to Co Kerry again.
He clocked a time of 28 hours 24mins 3secs for the 480 mile route, which included 6,400 metres of climbing.
Barr (61) started at
the most westerly point in the Republic of Ireland, Slea Head on the Dingle Peninsula, to the most easterly
point, Wicklow Lighthouse, before riding back again.
While his round trip is a new record he also set a new marker for the first leg of the ride; racing across Ireland west to east, which he did in 12hrs 35mins.
Barr reaches the halfway point in a very breezy Co Wicklow and turns his bike around to get going again the way he came
Barr was sponsored by a number of backers, including headline supporter White’s Oats; the company continuing with their backing despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Because
of Covid-19 Barr has undertaken more ultra races and place to place record attempts
in Ireland this year than he normally would and he now has an impressive
collection of records for riding in Ireland in all directions.
He
holds the north-south record as
well as the south-north, north-south-north, west-east, east-west, and now after
last weekend the west-east-west.
He holds the perimeter of Ireland record, having set that marker during Race Around Ireland with a time of 103 hours.
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Having just set the record for the Irish west-east-west route, he said he was now looking forward to adding it to the Race Joe Barr series of endurance races that he and his team runs, and which you can find out about by following this link.
“It’s going to be one of those epic races. It won’t be easy; that’s for sure," he explained of the route he planned to promote one of his event;s on.
"And if people are thinking of riding Race Around Ireland, this is the kind of race they can come and do and prepare for that, definitely,” he said, adding the size of the challenge would be attractive to many people.
“It
was an epic; an incredibly difficult day in the wind and on the terrain, with
the sheer level of climbing it was so intense and the roads actually are dead,”
he said.
While he enjoyed a very strong first day, he explained that after dark and into the next morning, from about 4am until 10am, he was on the back foot.
“I couldn’t get the speed up because the wind was so dense. We were on a big wide road and the wind was just blowing across the road and I couldn’t get any shelter,” he said of some very long exposed stretches along the way.
“It
was horrible for about four hours and a couple of times I nearly folded. But when
I got to the smaller roads and a bit of shelter, I got the momentum going
again.”
He added he focused on his cadence and didn’t go into the red on the climbs. And while he did not break the 27-hour mark, which he had been hoping for, he believed it may take a while before anyone did.
The road surface was so “rough and unforgiving” the route was very challenging, especially into the direct headwind.
It was so hard he was shocked by it but he believed there would be a huge appetite among ultra cyclists for what he regarded as an “absolute classic course”.
He was also dealing with sleep deprivation along the way and on the wider roads around Mitchelstown and Carrick-on-Suir and Clonmel the ride was especially difficult.
While he had set a new record of the west-east ride across Ireland on Saturday – of 12hrs 35mins - when he turned around for the return leg he was riding into a direct headwind.
There was climbing for the last 100 miles, 160km, to Wicklow, with the same after turning around there, meaning a lot of climbing was packed into one section of the event.
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