They’ll travel through some of Ireland’s most stunning scenery and locations, from the Ring of Kerry to the Orchard County and everywhere in between.
But an 18-strong team of cyclists – embarking on a gruelling 285 mile fundraiser hatched in County Armagh – will have little time en route to simply stop and savour the view.
What they will have instead is the knowledge that their efforts will help fund a development plan which will allow the Tullysaran-based O’Connell’s GAC to push upward and onward after taking their place in football’s senior ranks.
At the same time, the epic trek will support the great work of Air Ambulance NI too, a charitable cause close to everybody’s heart, and bring the whole community together.
Colm McGahan is the lead cyclist and, together with his cousin, Jason, seized the reins and organised August’s entire three-day ‘Literator Tour’.
He told Armagh I: “I’m a member of the club and I’ve kids involved in the club. It was actually Jason, who’s based in County Kerry, and another club mate, Damian Smyth, who had come up with this idea of organising a fundraising charity cycle from Cahersiveen, in County Kerry back to Tullysaran, to endeavour to raise much-needed funds for the club.
“While doing that, we’d also make a 10% contribution to the Air Ambulance.
“That all came about, back in November time, when we had our own dinner dance. Me being an avid cyclist, they put the idea to me as a fundraiser and it’s between myself and Jason mainly organising the event.
“At the very start we sent out an expression of interest to see how many would be interested in doing it. I suppose because of the commitment needed for it, a lot of people were put off just by it being over the three days. We probably started out with maybe 20 or 22 and then, as with these things always, we had a few fallers, but not very many, so at the minute we actually have 18 very committed, dedicated volunteers.
“Not all started out as cyclists; there is a few of us are members of cycle clubs, but there’s a few people in it that never really cycled probably from their kids.”
Cousin Jason McGahan is a Tullysaran clubman now living in County Kerry and he has enlisted three friends from there to sign up. All but three or four of the 14 County Armagh-based cyclists are members of O’Connell’s GAC, while the others still hold close links to Tullysaran.
It will be early next month when they will gather at the starting line, dividing into two teams of nine for what will be a truly remarkable route.
As Colm explained: “We travel down to Cahersiveen on the 5th of August. The whole tour is 285 miles in total, which we’ll split up across three days. The first day, August 6th, we’ll cycle from Cahersiveen to Limerick. That’s exactly 100 miles. We stay in Limerick that night and the next morning we get up and we cycle then from Limerick to Mullingar, which is 93 miles, and then from Mullingar back to Tullysaran, which is 92 miles, the following day. Each day will be split up, just for general food stops and things like that.
“At the minute, we’re aiming to be back in Tullysaran somewhere between 3pm and 3.30pm on August 8th.
“Because of the two groups, we’ll pick a point in Armagh and regroup and we’ll come out in convoy, everybody together. There’ll be all the support vehicles and hopefully a few more to really drive us home on that last day.
“There is a reception arranged by the club too. There’ll be a barbecue and a fun day for that afternoon and there’ll be a celebration that night that the club has organised with food and drinks that evening.”
When Armagh I caught up with Colm on Friday, he was confident that all of those taking part were more than capable of going the distance, praising their commitment and dedication to training in advance.
“Whenever we did get the group together, I had developed a 24 week training plan, albeit there was a fairly keen interest earlier than that, so it probably started maybe about 30 weeks out divided up into six-week blocks,” he explained. “We started the first day, it was supposed to be eight to 10 miles, but in actual fact we ended up with 30 miles, so we just built from that.
“The first six weeks it was fairly relaxed, building on the 30 miles, maybe one cycle during the week, but then over the course of the training it very quickly progressed. It got a lot more intense, where we had two sessions during the week, usually Tuesday and Thursday, and then we actually built it up, started not just one ride at the weekend but it was into two. You had to start building at the two back-to-back cycles to try and get used to cycling over three days.
“Last weekend we reached our peak in the training plan. We did 100 miles on the Saturday and almost 70 then on the Sunday. The training plan’s a wee bit like training for a marathon. The recommended training for a marathon is you never actually do the full marathon. Using that sort of strategy for the cycle, we only ever do two days back-to-back. The two days is actually finished now and we’re starting to taper down a wee bit.
“Tomorrow actually we’ll be doing 70 miles and the following week is 60 and the following week is 50. We’re still trying to maintain two nights during the week, just to keep the legs spinning.
“ I think we’re actually in a much better place than I thought it would be from the outset. Everybody’s up to speed and up to the challenge.”
A GoFundMe page has been set up and has already raised over £5,000 and counting.
The money – after a contribution to Air Ambulance NI – will fund some very much-needed improvements to the O’Connell’s GAC ground.
And this is necessary to allow the club to continue pushing forward, after making its mark in recent years.
“The club met a few months ago to put together an overall club development plan and that’s a work in progress at the minute,” explained Colm. “It’s definitely going to aid operations to improve the facilities.
“For the first time ever in the history of the club we got into the senior championship. Back in 2015, we won the junior championship. We got to the final of the intermediate championship and we remained in the intermediate up until last year, where we won the intermediate league and that got us into the senior championship.
“The club has been striving over the last 10 or 15 years, but unfortunately the facilities are not up to the level of what you would need to keep that senior status.
“We have ambitions to extend the club facilities and improve the gym facilities and improve the fence around the main pitch, which is a bit dilapidated at this stage. There’s ball walls for skills training for kids too. That’s only a drop in the ocean of what the aspirations would be for the overall footprint of the actual club.
“There’s a development plan in progress and the money from this would definitely help progress certain aspects of that.
“But it is more than for the GAC club development and the NI Air Ambulance. It is about bringing the whole community together and being to able to develop facilities that everyone in the community can avail of, irrespective of their religious or ethnic background.
“It is also about bringing the community together in getting involved and enjoying the experience of our journey through all the preparation and through the three days of the event planned in August.”
The success of this initiative, according to the club, depends on the support of the wider community, and every donation, no matter the size, will contribute to both local sport and a vital emergency service.
If you would like to support the club’s cycle fundraiser, you can do so here.
