The squawk of a bird forces me to open one eye. It’s 4am and rural Brittany is still impossibly dark. My face is inches from the damp tarmac and there’s a faint smell of something you’d associate with phone booths. Within minutes I’m shambolically re-stuffing my saddlebag to leave it looking like a snake that’s eaten some kitchen utensils. Pulling on my damp and filthy kit, I crack a can of baked beans, clip in, do a quick scan of my bus shelter bedroom and freewheel down the road. It has only taken three days of riding the Pan Celtic Ultra, but already this is my new normal.
Started by Matt ‘Mally’ Ryan in 2018, the Pan Celtic is an ultra-distance event that takes a different route each year, but always navigating the Celtic nations, of which there are six: the Isle of Man, Cornwall, Brittany in France, Ireland, Wales and Scotland. Welsh Mally has a fondness for every nation: ‘Ireland is just so beautiful; the people are so nice and it reminds me of Wales. I like the tenacity of the Cornish people and the hardiness of
