Team Geared Up

An Adventure in The Mournes, brought to you by Tango & Cash.

ANTRIM, NORTHERN IRELAND (Team Geared Up) - It’s dark, and raining… So, a quick shuffle through the archives and we’re back to sunny May 2007. The Mournes Seven Sevens, a particularly challenging long-distance foot-race every August, has left many a carcass quivering helplessly on the mountain.

In Tango & Cash style, trying to avoid footwork as much as possible, the natural way to enjoy all seven of the Mourne mountains over 700 metres, was to do so with the bikes.

Top of our kit list was plumber’s pipe-lagging from B&Q, taped round the tubing on the bikes, as we rightly anticipated we would be carrying them on our shoulders A LOT.

Our route, designed with the bikes in mind, was not the actual race route, but we topped all 7 mountains in fantastic weather (apart from a quick and ferocious hail-shower atop Bearnagh!)

We enjoyed superb, albeit technical, descents from Meelbeg, Bearnagh, Commedagh, Donard and Binnian - really top notch stuff.

Some great stuff also on the Brandy Pad, and from Donard under the Castles, and between the tors going up Binnian. The climbs were all on foot, as our singlespeed bikes were about 24 gears too high!

Terrible descents from Meelmore and most of Lamagan - pretty much unrideable unless well scouted first.

A long day, but well worth the effort. A few more snaps…

Never try a wheelie on the top of Commedagh in a cross-wind…

Great section between the tors heading up Binnian…

The Vulcan salute - de rigeur in the high Mournes…

The final descent from Binnian, back to Carrick Little - what a great descent!

The Seven Sevens on Bikes - The Route
All the photos from the day, on Photobox
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