Lap the Lough

By Tony Richardson

A fantastic day at the Lap the Lough Roisin Richardson, Darren Watters and myself headed off in one of the early groups from the Hill of O'Neill in Dungannon on a bright calm sunny morning. We cycled through some of the small windy streets in Dungannon and then out onto the open road into Portadown cross the river Bann and onto Craigavon. The groups started to get stretched out along the road at this stage and we got into a small group of 8 where we all worked hard together. The others in the group had no experience in group cycling but we quickly taught them the main points and we kept a good pace up until the main lunch stop in Antrim town this was the half way point in the cycle.. We bumped into Colm Mc Hugh at the food stop where most people sat outside in the lovely sun and Colm finished the spin with us. Leaving the stop the wind got up on the Northern side of the lake and it was full into our face at this point with a good climb up through Randalstown and onto Toome. The roads at this point were lovely country roads and it was the first time we got a good look at the lake with the sun glittering on the top of it. We had started to cycle south at this stage and the wind was on out back which made life that bit easier. When we got to about 5 or 6k from out return to Dungannon, we heard about the climb up into the town but didn't pass much notice about it, but as any of you who have done it before its a long tough drag back to the top of the Hill of O'Neill from where we started. It was a fantastic day and glad we done it.