On Behalf of the "Rookies"

A guest editoral contribution this evening from Marco - The blog will be updated over the next week with new photos from the cycle and an update on the Fund Raising. If you haven't already, please give generously.


A few of the 18 cyclists had never taken cycling that seriously and in fact some of us did not have appropriate bikes, equipment and of course the dreaded Lycra outfits!  By the beginning of May, we had purchased our bikes and began an intensive training schedule.

For some of us this commenced with getting used to clip-less pedals and that meant getting used to falling off on a regular basis. In fact some of us have managed to get scabs on top of scabs.

We started our training off slowly, the lagan tow paths, the comber greenway - to begin with we thought that 10 miles on this mountainous terrain was a real achievement. What we did not realise that the horror roads were still to come!

At this point we need to mention our trainers/coaches/torturers....

David - he took us to his torture chamber (or sorry it was his garage!) where he showed us bikes which he and Mairead trained on while watching scary DVD's of morons cycling up the Alps and Pyrenees. He even had a photo on the wall showing Mairead climbing up the steepest hill in Ireland. We as rookies began to panic - 4 months to go and we thought what have we let ourselves in for.

 David took us to a place called "Jacobs Ladder" and subjected us to "timed" runs up and down a hill that our cars would have struggled up. We didn't go up this hill once that night - Oh No - we had to do it 4 times! He made us do it another night and were "encouraged" (more like threatened) to improve our times. We were told that this hill would be like a "Small Col" - in other words guys this was a doddle!

One night David took us on real hill training - Fort Road, Dows Road and Homestead Road. This was "great" accept the rookies rode off into the distance in the wrong direction and we had to be rescued by Ciaran in his car!

 As for our training up and down Dree Hill - OMG!!!! (Top of Dree Hill below)

Then there was Martin who did not believe in short runs - it was 60 miles or what was the point? We were promised a good lunch which was our incentive. None of us could believe that you could leave Doagh and arrive in Glenarm without going on main roads, but that was the case. Of course Martin made sure that we did a few hills along the way. These were not hills - they were cliffs!

We need to thank Martin's family for their hospitality when we returned for these adventures as there were always cups of tea, filled rolls, fruit and plenty of cuddles from his dogs which made this part of our training worth the effort!

And finally there was Seamus (with assistance from Larry). Seamus organised most of our runs. He also made sure that no matter where we went, he liked to ensure we got all sorts of weather, but mainly RAIN!!

We usually went along Jacob's ladder and headed out into County Down - Saintfield, Listoder, Cahard was a favourite jaunt and we all felt we got better at this route as the weeks passed by. That was the easy bit.

Seamus organised a training camp in Donegal, made us do the “Lap the Lough in a storm and to cap it all made us take leave at the end of August and ride 2 days in a row followed by a day off and then 2 more days in a row. He also made us cycle from Hilltown UP to Spelga Dam!!!!!!!!!!!! We learnt how to change punctures (well, o.k., watched while Seamus and Larry changed punctures).

But, what we really learnt was that you could get a great Ulster Fry in Brennan’s and Castlewellan and great ice cream in Rathfriland.  Fearing the Bonk, Seamus tackles a famous Brennan's ice-cream - sprinkles added for fast glucose absoption...

As all of you who have read the blog will know that we all achieved our goals of climbing every mountain (although the "piggin" never ending forest that we encountered nearly broke us!) and if it had not been for Seamus (with Larry), David and Martin having the patience and the time to put up with us and encourage us every "pedal" of the way then we would clearly have not achieved what we did.

On behalf of the "Rookies" - THANKS TO ALL WHO TRAINED US AND ENCOURAGED US - we could not have done this without you.

Pour le Plaisir!