The Mourne 500 - Take 2! 30 July

Every point in the Mournes over 500m in height – 21 hours (18 hrs 26 min from Point 1 to Point 39), 68km, 5400m of climbing.

Atop Finlieve, the Mourne 500 completed

Following our abject failure on 5 June, we were all lined up to give the Mourne 500 another crack with the bikes on 30 July. Unfortunately, Davy had to pull out at the last minute due to a particularly nasty bout of athlete’s foot, so instead Enda and I decided to have a quick stroll around the route to stretch the legs, Enda fresh from completing the Transalp Challenge with Mickey Laverty as Team TrailBadger the week before.

GPS stats of our Mourne 500 route on the day

Photo Gallery of the Mourne 500

Incapacitated as he was, Davy joined us for every stride via his trusty CB radio, and was a constant source of inspiration and advice through what turned out to be a pretty arduous 21 hours!

We decided to do the route in the opposite direction to the previous bike effort, parking at Carrick Little car park and heading up Binnian, our start time about 11:20am in the rain and mist.

Food and supplies were similar to before, with LOTS of pizza, chocolate, gels and energy bars (crisps too would have greatly improved the experience), plus first aid kit and bivvy bag, torch and extra layers, etc. But no bikes!

The weather was unpredictable, with rain, drizzle, mist, wind, sunshine and clear skies to keep us on our toes, but it was pretty cold, wet, windy and miserable through the night. Throughout, we were glad of our compass to keep us right, as visibility was very changeable.

It started to get dark when we were coming off Ben Crom around 10pm, and the following mountains were tackled in total darkness: Doan, Slieveloughshannagh, Carn, Muck, Ott, Slievenamuck, Cock, Pigeon Rock. The first hints of daybreak greeted us as we tackled Slievemoughanmore.

After our final point, Finlieve, we shuffled down to the road and started a 12km trudge on the tarmac back to the car. Once we got to the shop in Attical, to our great relief a geological research team were kind enough to offer us a lift back to the car park in their Land Rover.

So, who’s next for this one?!

All the points on our route

The Ulster Way versus the Transalp Challenge

In July 2006, we completed the Transalp Challenge, hailed as the world's toughest mountainbike race, and we trained our socks off for it for 6 months, albeit we did not really know what we were at. A couple of days ago, we completed the new Ulster Way, devoid of adequate training, having only been out on only one 4+ hour ride in 2008, round Lough Neagh the week before we departed.

We thought it would be interesting to do a comparison of the two challenges, in terms of times, distances, and vertical climbing, just to see how it all stacks up. The results are interesting (if you find this sort of guff fascinating, that is!)

Basically, it's no wonder the Ulster Way nearly killed us!

	Transalp Challenge	The New Ulster Way
Total distance (km)	600	937
Total climbing (m)	22,000	15,744
Number of days	8	6
Total time we took (hrs)	56	84
Average climbing / day (m)	2,750	2,624
Average distance / day (km)	75	156
Average stage time / day (hrs)	7	14

The Transalp Challenge 2006

Two of Northern Ireland's "top" mountainbikers are going to have to work together... even if it kills them. 400 miles and 65,000 vertical climbing feet, from Germany to Italy. How hard can it be?...

See the director's cut of Tango & Cash, Transalp Challenge 2006.