Iron Mountains 300

The Iron Mountains 300 is a self supported 300km cycling event which circles the heart of Ireland. This is the nicest audax cycle I have done to date, although I did get the nicest day of the year so that might have helped a little.

I was unable to be the Iron Mountains 300 on the organised date as I have other commitments so when I seen that I could do it as a permanent I was delighted.

Audax permanents can be started and finished at any of the designated controls so we chose Crossmaglen as it was the closest to us.

My Iron Mountains 300

At 05.30, on a cool Saturday morning five of us started our adventure for the day.  The route took us west, first hitting Castleblaney and then on to Ballybay and on through County Cavan.  A real hidden gem in Ireland, Cavan is filled with lakes which create beautiful view. Some very nice views long this stretch of the route.

We stopped at Ballyconnel for our breakfast with 83km done.  By now the sun was up and was started to warm up a little.

There is a SuperValue on the way into the town that has a deli and hot food. I advise you stop here and fill up because after that you start into the climbing part of the day.

Up and up and up.

The first climbing isn’t too bad. Its more long than steep so find a nice gear and enjoy the views on the way up. You are really in the middle of nowhere here. Once the crest this climb you are treated to a wonderful downhill section were some caution is needed. 

Dowra was our first (official) control. There is a cattle market on every saturday so the place was filled with jeeps and cowboxes.

After a brief stop we set off again for the second major climb of the day. A long steady climb to Bencroy.

This is a tougher climb than the previous as it gets steeper towards the end of it. Again, just try to let the gears do the work and enjoy the spin on the way up.  Below are picture I took on the way up.

The pictures below were taken from the top of Bencroy. Amazing place to sit to get you breath back.

Beware of the decent from Bencroy. Very steep and narrow roads so make sure your brakes are working well.

We stopped in Ballinamore for dinner at 150km. We found a place along the main street “Commercial and Tourist Hotel”. It had picnic tables outside so we could sit and watch the bikes. The food was nice and the service was pretty quick.

From there you head south-east through small towns like Killashandra and Oldcastle. There aren’t many flat roads along this part of the route but there aren’t any major climbs either.

That is until you get to near Kells when a fairly big climb comes out of nowhere. However, there is a nice decent after it where you can pick a good bit of speed.

We stopped in Kells for our last major stop at 230km. After that we hit Slane, which is the official start. Oh how I wished we had started here. I still had over 50km to go and I was starting to feel it.

Just as you cycle out of Slane you take a left on to a back road. A lovely quiet little road which had lots of very steep hills, both up and down. I reminded me of a rollercoaster.

Up and down we went all the way to Ardee. From here we knuckle down and pushed on the finish in Crossmaglen. We made it back at 20.30, 309km later. Pooped.

Conclusion

I highly recommend this route to anyone thinking of doing a 300km. With the right pace you will enjoy every minute of it.

 Here is the link to the Iron Mountains 300.