Bikepacking Ireland: A Three-Day Gravel Adventure from Dublin to DonegalIreland has no shortage of incredible cycling routes, but few combine quiet gravel tracks, winding country lanes, dramatic mountain passes and spectacular Atlantic coastline quite like a bikepacking trip from Dublin to Donegal.When we launched Fustle back in 2019, one of the first people we called was our good friend Sandy Plenty. Sandy travelled to Ireland to capture the photos and films that introduced Fustle to the gravel cycling community, and we've been sharing adventures ever since.Fast forward to 2026, and our latest Irish adventure looked a little different. Alongside his business partner, Matt Duley, Sandy was travelling to Ireland to visit the Bridgedale Socks factory, located just ten minutes from Fustle HQ in County Down. Rather than simply fly in and out, we decided to make the most of the trip.Sandy and I would spend the weekend playing a few rounds of golf while Matt would ride his loaded Fustle Lakelander from Dublin Port to Cruit Island Golf Club in County Donegal, enjoying three days of bikepacking across some of Ireland's finest gravel roads, greenways and coastal lanes.Here's Matt's story.Day One: Dublin Port to Lough Derravaragh via the Royal Canal GreenwayMaking the most of a Marches Parts Co. business trip to visit the Bridgedale Socks factory in Belfast, Sandy and I put together a simple plan. He'd drive north before golfing his way across Ireland with Ali, while I'd leave Dublin Port on my Fustle Lakelander and bikepack across the country to meet them at Cruit Island.With my route planned, camping gear packed and the bike loaded, I rolled off the ferry on Saturday morning.After a quick photo at Dublin Port and a fist bump, we went our separate ways. Sandy headed north in the van, while I navigated my way through a busy Saturday afternoon in Dublin before joining the excellent Royal Canal Greenway.For anyone planning a bikepacking trip in Ireland, the Royal Canal Greenway is a fantastic way to escape the city without worrying about traffic. Smooth gravel, quiet surroundings and miles of uninterrupted riding make it an ideal start to any adventure.Unfortunately, a relentless headwind had other ideas about how quickly I'd make progress. Despite the steady resistance, the excellent riding surfaceranging from smooth tarmac to premium champagne gravelmade the kilometres enjoyable.After dinner at a local pub, I reached my campsite beside Lough Derravaragh, ready for some well-earned sleep.Day Two: Climbing the Bencroy Pass and Riding to BallyshannonA live band at the campsite until 2am meant sleep was in short supply, but there was no time to waste.The day began under low cloud and damp conditions before gradually giving way to blue skies and sunshine. The highlight of the day was undoubtedly the climb over Bencroy Pass. As the cloud lifted, the views became more impressive with every metre of elevation, before an unforgettable descent towards Sligo rewarded all the hard work.Originally, Sligo had been my planned overnight stop, but arriving in good time and feeling surprisingly strong, I stopped for a coffee and a sausage roll before deciding to push on another 50 kilometres.Not every route is perfect. A small navigation mistake left me riding almost 20 kilometres along a busy national road, a reminder that even the best bikepacking plans sometimes require a little improvisation.Thankfully, quieter roads soon returned as the route headed towards the Wild Atlantic Way. Rolling into Ballyshannon in the early evening, I stocked up on supplies from the local Spar before enjoying a hot shower and a much quieter campsite than the previous night.Day Three: Following the Wild Atlantic Way to Cruit IslandWith a proper night's sleep behind me, I rolled away from the campsite just after 8am.The climb out of Ballyshannon soon warmed the legs before one of the most memorable sections of the tripcycling along Rossnowlagh Beach at low tide. Riding across the packed sand with the Atlantic Ocean alongside was one of those moments that makes bikepacking in Ireland so special.After passing through Donegal Town before the cafs had opened, I continued along peaceful back roads towards Ardara. Quiet lanes, stunning scenery and almost no traffic made this one of the standout sections of the journey.A Full Irish Breakfast at a local tearoom provided enough fuel for the final push north.Crossing the beautiful Gweebarra Bridge, I followed one of the best coastal cycle paths in County Donegal before riding through Dungloe and Burtonport. The familiar Atlantic headwind returned, but so did the spectacular scenery.Finally, the bridge to Cruit Island appeared.Rolling into Cruit Island Golf Club just as Sandy and Ali finished their round couldn't have been timed better. After three days crossing Ireland by bike, we'd arrived at exactly the same moment.Following a few photographs and a quick Bridgedale Socks photoshoot, there was only one way to celebratea sausage roll and a perfectly poured pint of Guinness.Why Ireland is Perfect for BikepackingMatt's journey covered everything that makes bikepacking in Ireland so memorable: historic greenways, quiet gravel roads, mountain passes, remote coastal lanes and the unforgettable landscapes of the Wild Atlantic Way.For anyone looking to explore Ireland by gravel bike, the route from Dublin to Donegal offers an incredible mix of terrain, welcoming towns, great campsites and world-class scenery. Whether you're planning your first bikepacking trip or searching for your next adventure, Ireland continues to prove why it's becoming one of Europe's best destinations for gravel cycling.If you're inspired to plan your own adventure, the Fustle Gravel Bikes are built for exactly these kinds of journeyscomfortable over long distances, capable on every surface and equally at home on gravel, tarmac and everything in between.The Lakelander is a little more race focussed, and our new Causeway G2 is the ultimate bike packing adventure bike.https://www.ridefustle.com/collections/causeway-g2/BikesMarches Parts are the UK distributor for many off road cycle brands: https://marchesparts.co.uk/Bridgedale are a sock manufacturer who have been producing outdoor specific socks at the tip of Strangford Lough since World War 1: https://www.bridgedale.com/The Lakelander is our Gravel Race chassis, designed for long distance, high speeds and zero compromise.

One for the sprinters on Bordeaux.La Gave de Po-gaar: Mads Pedersen went on the rampage with Victor Campenaerts to collect max points at the first intermediate sprint. Hes now on 168 points with Max Kanter and Biniam Girmay still on double-digits so likely to keep it here. No other move could stick until Ben OConnor ended up solo off the front to start the col dAspin. He quickly got swept up like a stalk of wheat going into a combine harvester.UAE continued the threshing on the Tourmalet setting a pace that cracked rider after rider and the old phrase of riders get popped before La Mongie, riders attack after La Mongie came to mind.Isaac del Toro led out Tadej Pogaar in the streets of the eyesore resort but the Mexicans easil readable facial expressions werent a response to the architecture, it was a tell and he couldnt stay.Jonas Vingegaard didnt respond and tried to pace himself across. He got the gap down to 8-9 seconds but was pulling all sorts of faces and sure enough he would crack and lose 30 seconds by the top. A chase group of Paul Seixas, Florian Lipowitz and Del Toro made it over next and the trio were caught by Remco Evenepoel, Juan Ayuso, Matias Skjelmose, Sep Kuss and Lenny Martinez.The eight rider chase group struggled to work together, Evenepoel and Lipowitz might have been wearing different jerseys, although this can speak to fatigue more than intrigue. The longest turns were taken by Evenepoel and Seixas as they chomped into Vingegaards lead, the former got over the Tourmalet without a disaster while the latter cleared it for the first time in a race and impressed. Meanwhile Pogaar was away and clear.Pogaar finished with a bigger gap than he took at Hautacam last summer. While Vingegaard had a tough time he can console himself that he can almost climb as fast as Pogaar which might help for the mountain stages to come. Plus Pogaar is going to be in yellow for days to come. In his post-stage TV interview on FranceTV there was event a hint of concern about this, but a stone in his shoe rather than disaster.Worse happened to yellow jersey Torsten Tren. Flame-grilled by the pace up the Tourmalet was understandable, even if he was probably among the top-20 before imploding. Then he crashed on the descent after touching wheels with a team mate. The jersey had been plucked off his shoulders by then but this wasnt the adieu he wanted.Out come phrases like le Tour est encore long and anything could happen, journalese for result in Paris looks like a foregone conclusion but please dont tune out. But if Pogaar looks likely to win in Paris today, he did before the race started too. Each to their own for tastes, youre free to go for a ride or read haiku instead but theres plenty to see behind Pogaars wake from sprints to breakaways, the podium and the green and polka-dot jerseys are all in play.The Route: 175km and 850m of vertical gain. The start in Hagetmau is because if the race has been camping in Pau it was too far to start from there to reach Pau and this small town was picked instead.Theres the monotonous passage through the Landes forest. The intermediate sprint is gently downhill. The climb of Bguey is 1.2km at 4%, a big ring kind of climb as it leaves the riverbank in Cadillac which gave its name to car brand via the founder of Detroit to climb among the vineyards.From here its flat again through the Ctes de Bordeaux terroir where the monoculture means exposed roads and little shade.The Finish: flat and the same finish line. But the approach is different to 2024 when the race crossed the Garonne river with 2.5km to go after spiralling through an underpass to reach a bridge. This time the sprint zone begins with 5km to go and then its straight over a bridge and then onto the quays with 3.8km to go.The Contenders: Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-PremierTech) won here in 2023 but has talked about fatigue and not having the legs so far and so a harder pick. The flat day is ideal for Tim Merlier (Soudal-Quickstep) who lost contact with his train in Pau, but also lost his lead-out Bert Van Lerberghe on the Aspin, DNF. Biniam Girmay (NSN) is looking reliably quick. Olav Kooij (Decathlon-CMA CGM) made it look easy.Its hard to look beyond these four, only informed by Wednesdays stage the ratings change. As with the preview for the Pau stage others have a chance and will ride on this hope but for the sake of argument send the peloton down the quays in Bordeaux and eight times out of ten one of the four wins. Still Max Kanter (XDS-Astana) did look good, both form and the formation are there.Merlier, KooijPhilipsen, GirmayKanter, PedersenWeather: 37C and sunny. Normally it wont be windy but theres the outside chance of thunderstorms later on and if the clouds build so will the gusts of wind.TV: KM0 is at 1.25pm and the finish is forecast for 5.25pm CEST. Tune in for the finish as this could be a real siesta stage if nobody attacks, but Baptiste Veistroffer may try again and if others accompany him we could see some sport later on.The post Tour de France Stage 7 Preview first appeared on The Inner Ring.

They will say that Tadej Pogaar dealt a blow on stage six of the Tour de France. But really it was a straight-up pummelling a beatdown so strong that, even by Pogaars standards, it took people by surprise. Never in the world champions 22 previous stage victories at the race had he won so resoundingly, both in terms of distance and time. His 43km solo, over the Col du Tourmalet and on to Gavarnie, was his furthest ever at the Tour. The 2 minutes and 38 seconds he won by was his biggest single-day margin. Entire Tours have been won by less. And yet, as he sat in his press conference after the stage, dressed again in the yellow jersey hes already won four times, he barely seemed tired. Especially not for a man who had gotten up at 7am because he was, in his words, so excited for today. Pogaar had always planned to win on the race's first mountain test. But even he couldn't have expected to run away with the race. The energy yesterday on the bus after the finish was already a big hype for today, he said. We were like, Lets go all-in. Whats the worst that can happen? You can blow out a little bit, but we know that we are the stronger team, so we said wed commit to one plan, and whatever happens, happens.What happened was a total demolition. Around 5km from the top of the Tourmalet, Pogaar sprung off the wheel of his UAE Team Emirates-XRG lieutenant Isaac del Toro, and charged away from his GC rivals. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) did his best to follow, but could only do so momentarily. By the time Pogaar passed the restaurant at the climbs summit, his advantage was 31 seconds, which ballooned on the descent, and then swelled further on the near-19km drag up to the finish line in Gavarnie. The race went perfect for us, actually, he said afterwards. The breakaway couldnt go for almost two hours, so that meant the bunch brought us closer to the climbs, and then we really did what we said. How events unfolded reminded the world champion of a similar day in 2023. That year, on stage six to Cauterets-Cambasque, Vingegaard attacked with Wout van Aert on the descent of the Tourmalet, and distanced Pogaar. I had these flashbacks in my mind, he said. I was thinking, If Jonas comes fresh to the top, and maybe hes only 20 seconds [behind], hes for sure catching me on the downhill. In reality, it shouldnt have worried him. Pogaar went on to win that stage three years ago, as he did on Thursday, in control once again in his playground of the Pyrenees. Was there a moment, at all, when he felt on the limit? I think, for me, if the climb [of the Tourmalet] was one kilometre longer, I would also have exploded, he said. But I think for Jonas it was also a little bit too long for his pace. He did his best, he did really good, but there was a little bit of a difference, that you go too much into the red.Some watching on may have groaned at Pogaars dominance. But the fans at the roadside stood in awe of what they were seeing. One lady joyously waved her Slovenian flag in the wind. The staff at La Ruade bar, 300m from the finish line, came out onto the terrace and swung pumpkin-sized cowbells between their legs. The crowds cheers then faded to silence. Where was Vingegaard? The gap on the big screen said almost two minutes, but the pictures were delayed; it felt like much longer. I'm a Pogi guy, one fan turned and said to his friend, but I wanted there to be a contest. It was only when they heard the growl of a camera motorbike that the fans slipped out of their chit-chat, and turned to face the road, where a labouring Vingegaard chased in desperation. For the Dane, what awaited at the summit was a huddle of reporters, impatient to capture his disappointment. Pogaar, on the other hand, was greeted by Frances president, Emmanuel Macron, in a pair of blue aviator sunglasses. We had an immense stage, Macron, who had followed in a race car, told France Tlvisions. It was incredible. The president watched the podium ceremony from the wings and applauded Pogaar on his victory. When he eventually congratulated the Slovenian, he gripped his hand and held it for more than 15 seconds, hoping perhaps to extract some of his powers. This was, Macron realised, one of the sports most dominant riders ever, on one of his most dominant days. The supremacy was clear. The Tour may be an exhibition from here on.

At the Tour de France, the racing does not always end at the finish line. Sprint deviations, sticky bottles, feeding breaches, littering fines, time penalties, yellow cards and relegations can all become part of the daily story, especially in a race where every stage result and jersey position is wa...