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Old 06-13-06, 09:12 PM
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Blackberry
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Location: Charlottesville, VA
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Bikes: Lemond Victoire, Cannondale.Mountain Bike, two 1980s lugged steel Treks, ancient 1980-something Giant mountain bike converted into a slick tired commuter with mustache handlebars, 1960-something Raleigh Sports

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Originally Posted by rothar
A couple of years ago when I was living back in Ireland I did a bike trip from my home in Dublin to Killarney in County Kerry. I took a long loop of a ride, through the back roads, and spent a great 7 days in all cycling. In all I cycled through 8 Irish counties and the trip made me some what of an expert on the average Irish farm dog.
My first day saw me cycle through Dublin unscathed and enter County Wicklow where I experienced my first friendly dog. Cycling up an overgrown, leafy lane I spied the little beast about 2 seconds before he launched himself from the grass straight at me. He came like a rocket and I got such a fright that I swerved all over the road to avoid it. It was a small terrier like thing but that did not stop me ‘effing and blinding’ it and his now concerned owner for about 5 minutes. In fact the owner never appeared from behind the stone wall of their house but called the dog inside.
County Carlow saw me pass several farm dogs that barked loudly and never moved an inch.
Kilkenny seemed to be full of sleeping dogs which I let lie.
Tipperary was the same as Carlow.
Waterford the dogs were noisy and chased me for a few feet which probably made them feel good.
Cork dogs looked, yawned and turned over.
Kerry dogs were a beast of a different colour though. Once here I had to put the bike between myself and 2 biggish brutes that came out of a farmyard. I did not have the speed to outride them on a hill, going up, so hopped off and walked around them. Also gave them and their missing owners a good ‘bollicking’ in passing.
In all though it was interesting to see the habits of different ‘county’ dogs. Don’t mean to put any one off cycling in Ireland as the back country roads are great for cycling and passing so many farm houses one is always likely to met a dog. I did enjoy on occasion flying down some roads and zipping past a dog before he knew I was there. Of course these were probably the chasers of the cyclists that followed me!! It was my little revenge.
Dogs througout the 32 counties are yowling, "You'lll never beat the Irish. You'll never beat the Irish. You'll never beat the irish, no matter how you try."
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