On Sunday 25th August, shortly after 2pm, an intrepid Waterford team, made up of 8 cyclists and 4 support crew, set off from Trim Castle. To quite literally cycle around the four compass points of the Island of Ireland.Michael Garland was one of that intrepid crew and he told Ollie and Mary on "The Big Breakfast Blaa"about how only 74 hours and 40 minutes later, having cycled non-stop 24/7, this Waterford dozen retuned to Trim, on Wednesday afternoon, at exactly seventeen minutes to five, to finish as the third team to cross the finishing line. They averaged nearly 29 kilometres per hour, over the gruelling 2160km course.
The team of 8 amateur cyclists were George Pepper (Team Captain), Fiona Holland, Ray Hayes, Alan Robinson, John Dalton, Richard Scannell, Tony Kennedy and Michael Garland. Who were supported by four crew cars, driven by Tricia Quinn (Crew Chief), John Barron, Jo Little and Colin Molloy.
The Team’s chosen charity is Make-A-Wish Ireland. To date over €5,000 has been raised and pledged. The money raised will be directly used to grant “Special wishes” to children, aged between 3 and 17 years of age, with life threatening medical conditions, to enrich the human experience of hope, strength and joy.
Speaking about this endurance test to beat ALL cycling endurance tests, George Pepper (Team Captain), stated, “This was one of those crazy challenges that we all wanted to take on. Call it a moment of madness, if you like. Sometimes in life you’ve got to set what seem like impossible challenges and face these head on.
So, we complied a great team of 8 cyclists, from three Waterford Clubs; 6 cyclists from The Waterford Biscuit Club, 1 from the Waterford Racing Club and 1 from the Copper Coast Wheelers. We then needed 4 crew members, 3 from The Waterford Biscuit Club, and an intrepid Make-AWish supporter all the way from Enniskillen.
We trained hard for 6 months and arrived at the start line at Trim Castle, not really knowing how well we might do. Yet, just under 75 hours later we arrived back into Trim, as the third team to finish/complete the whole race.
This Team quite literally visited all four points of the compass, on this Island. We cycled through horrendous winter-like storms, battled savage headwinds for 4/5th of the journey, lived in our cars for the three days, ate on the hoof, climbed every mountain and survived on only a few hours sleep.
Yet despite ALL at that was thrown at us, we gritted our teeth and ploughed on regardless, to come across the finish line as the third team to get home.
It was a wonderful experience, with some astonishing, amazing, magnificent people. A Waterford Team we should ALL be proud of.”
Of course, the Make-A-Wish Team could not have taken on the Race Around Ireland without the support of a number of key/main sponsors and these were; RS Connect, Versatile Group, DHL, VR Education, Moynihan Couriers and Vodafone (Waterford).
Tricia Quinn, Make-A-Wish Regional Coordinator added, “The opportunity to be chosen charity was enormous for us. Not only did it raise an incredible amount of funds, but it also gave us the platform to carry the Make-A-Wish brand to the four corners of Ireland. Highlighting the work that we do and opening new doors for us.
The 8 cyclists and 3 crew were sterling ambassadors for the charity and had to dig, so deep at times to get through each stage. While taking part had initially started as a personal goal, it became more about our Wish Kids and making sure we didn’t fail them.
I want to thank each one of you on behalf of Make-A-Wish and all our children, for your commitment. We felt truly blessed to be part of this fantastic team”
The Team’s Facebook page is http://bit.ly/2GSlfjr and the fundraising page is http://bit.ly/2ZDqScH where donations can still be made.
