Sorrento Cycling Club

The "Holly Run" tour started at 10.10 on a wickedly cold bright day. Down the glen we went and swung across to Delgany and Rocky Valley via the delightful climbs of Kindlestown,Bohilla Lane and  Glencap Commons  .We lost a tandem along the way as it refused the last climb.On we went down to the gates of Powerscourt waterfall and nimbly climbed up to Crone. 2km later we stopped to pick small sprigs of holly. Conal Snr. briefly introduced a rather large piece of this seasonal flora to my posterior , I will of course plan my revenge. On we clmbed catching the O'Donaghue tandem ,who had  John and Eileen with them. Gillian caught up with us (in a car). Snow sprinkled all about and twinkled in the sunlight. Suddenly, two of Santa's elves (horrible ones), dressed in red and white (and lycra) attacked us, their eyes shone will evil as they bombarded us with their  full stockpile of snowballs (they will of course be given horrible handicaps in the races in 2010..ho ho ho ). We dismounted at Liam Horner's memorial stone. More snowballs!…..I have now apparently turned into a snowball magnet.The rowdies settled down and we did what we had come to do : we placed the holly at the beautiful granite stone  and Aidan illuminated us with the story of Liam's brilliant international cycling exploits and of  the man himself and the reasons  why we celebrate this man, who was one of our tribe and always will be . Afterwards we remounted to gingerly climb up to the cafe in Glencree. The road was as slippery and treacherous as F.F politican, so some of us walked the 1 km to be greated by steaming bowls of soup, buns and coffee….ahh…heaven! and Dave appeared as if by magic. He had waited for us at the wrong place. There was even a sign that declared " DUE TO THE WEATHER (SNOW) SANTA WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO BE THERE TODAY"!!! We took our time as we warmed up slowly and a strange beverage was passed around…goodness me, we thought he was such a clean living boy!!!!  Then we shocked ourselves by re-entering the bitterly cold air once more and descended to different destinations in small groups. We the "leaders" went by Knockree and on to the Big Sugarloaf. The North Wind then blew us apart and on to our  homes. So ended the last tour of this year. See you on Boxing…St.Steven's …..the 26th….have a lovely festive season…only kiddin'….Merry Christmas and to the Pagans, Goths, Heathens and Tree Huggers have a wonderful Winter Solstice.