The Tara 200 has always been an audax that I wanted to try. It starts in the Ashbourne retail park and it will be the first this year that I won’t be doing by myself so that made a nice change.
It had been scheduled for the 10th of March but it had to be changed to the 16th due to a yellow weather warning. The weather wasn’t much better on the 16th but I didn’t care as I just wanted to get it done.
We started at 08.00 in the pouring rain. The route brings you south through the town of Ashbourne before pulling off onto smaller country roads. Before long we we traveling north toward Garristown (14km). The surface here wasn’t great and they probably looked worse than they were because of the amount of standing water. I’m alway worried I’ll cycle into a big hole when riding on flooded roads.
I was still in a group at this early stage but I decided to let them pull away mostly because of the conditions but also because the pace was a little high for me and I didn’t want to burn out too early.
The road conditions got a lot better after a while and for most of the morning only a few cars passed. It was a lovely quiet route through what was probably lovely countryside but the views weren’t great for me due to the conditions, as you can see in the photos below.
There were some climbs here but nothing over-challenging until you get to Bellewstown (38km) where there is a killer climb that ramps up to nearly 20%.
After that we cycled on through Duleek (46km) and Donore (51km) through nice quiet roads. The first contol of the day was just 1km after Donore at the side of the road. The event organiser was there with a car full of food. There was meant to be 46 riders but only 23 turned up, presumably because of the weather. That meant that there was twice as much food as needed we could have any amount of sandwiches, cakes, biscuits and all washed down with tea, coffee or soft drinks. I couldn’t stop for long though as I got cold very quick because I was soaked through.
The quiet roads continued along the flooded boyne until we got to Slane (62km). We had to join the N2 the get through slane. It was a very busy road, or at least it felt like it because I was after being spoilt for the past 3 hours.
This didn’t last long as just after we left Slane we were back on a smaller road that meandered its way through Drumconrath (82km) and onto Kingscourt (95km). The closer you got the Kingscourt the harder the climbs seemed to get.
After you get through Kingscourt the climbing doesn’t stop until you are halfway to Bailieborough and we were on much busier roads again. We also had a nasty headwind too which didn’t help. I was glad to finally make it to Bailieborough (108km) as it was our second control which meant stopping for more fuel.
There was no manned contol here so we had to get a receipt as proof of passage. After filling up I had to get going again as I was getting cold. The rain had finally stopped and the wind was now on my back. Add to that the next 50 km+ was mostly downhill on quieter roads and it made for some great riding. Mullagh (120km), Moynalty (126km), Kells (133km), Athboy (146km) flew by and on to Trim (158km) for our final control.
This was a manned control with all the offerings of the first stop. Again, I didn’t hang around long as there was still 50km to go and I didn’t want to be out after dark. I was still getting cold quickly even though it hadn’t rained for a while now.
After that there was just one more climb worth mentioning and that was the Hill of Tara itself (176km). In saying that, it wasn’t so bad and there was some nice downhill miles for a while after it until you turn south again for the final 10km back to Ashbourne. This was a little humpy but nothing too bad.
The Climb To The Hill Of Tara 
Pulling into Ashbourne retail park (202km) at 18.00, I felt a great sense of achievement for not only doing the distance on what was a challenging course at times but for the fact that I did it in such terrible conditions.
The race organiser was there to stamp my brevet card for the last time.
Despite the bad weather, the Tara 200 is on of favourite Audax routes and I think I will do it again during the summer as a permanent to see what views I have missed.