Day 1

We started Day 1 by boarding a motorcoach to drive us 80 miles (and nearly 3 hours) from Cork to Mizen Head, our starting point.

Our bikes had made the trip earlier that morning in a van, but when we arrived we needed to spend half an hour or so getting set up to ride.

After the group photo, we were off. It was glorious weather, sunny and warm, and, for the first half especially, a beautiful route through fields of wildflowers with vistas of the sea far below us.

The last twenty miles into Glengarriff were less interesting, but we were rewarded by a charming town, with a main street lines with pubs and small shops.

At 9 p.m., a quarter of musicians began a set of traditional Irish music, seated on the sidewalk in front of a pub.

Tomorrow is a more challenging day of riding, so everyone is off to bed early.

In addition to 18 or so Brits, the group includes 3 South Carolinians, a Floridian, a German, and me and Larry from New Jersey.