Speedy Gonzales or a slowcoach it’s all the same in Challenge CC
CYCLING clubs all over the country have been back on the roads this week doing organised training spins for the first time in months as part of Phase 3 of the covid19 roadmap, as the nation’s interest in taking to the saddle peaked when leisure and sporting activities were restricted during the lockdown.
Getting out and about on two wheels has been a big part of Eoin McGrath’s life for the best part of thirty years, but little did he think when he embarked on one of those get-healthy drives in 2011 that it would lead to him becoming one of the founders of the fastest growing club in the West.
Challenge Cycling Club came to life after McGrath and five fellow enthusiasts completed a gruelling non-stop Mizen Head-to-Malin Head charity fundraiser in 2017 for Jigsaw, a challenge in memory of his late brother John that was hoped to become an annual event. Instead it morphed into a club that takes its racing seriously but is about much more than that, bringing a holistic approach to helping cyclists of all levels meet their goals.
“It was never our idea that a club would be formed but things just kind of snowballed as we had done a lot of media and promotional work for Mizen-to-Malin and people started referring to us as the Challenge team,” McGrath admitted.
“I started getting a lot of people asking for training advice and things like that so I spoke to the lads afterwards about setting up a club for people like ourselves who I felt weren’t catered for locally.
“Club cycling had a reputation for being a tough environment for newcomers or those who weren’t able to keep up with the pace. My idea was that if we set up a club it would be for absolutely everyone, whether they had a basket on the front of their bike or a €10,000 racer, they would all receive the same rights within the club and supports.
“So we advertised our first open training spin as Challenge Cycling Club in December 2017 on social media and thirty-three people showed up. Since then every week we get a couple of new faces joining and two and a half years later, we have over 140 people in the club.”
McGrath, originally from Salthill but now based just outside Clarinbridge, began cycling at a young age with a relative who was involved in Cong’s Cunga Cycling Club, but it was the Australian Phil Anderson’s dramatic stage win into Galway in the Nissan Classic in 1988 that really cemented his love for the sport. Seán Kelly, who was victorious that year, was always a hero but is now a friend of the club.
“I never thought when I was ten years of age standing in the rain with a marker looking for his autograph and looking up to him like a God, that I might be out on the roads regularly with the man and we would become friends. It’s a bit surreal really and he would be my all-time favourite rider.”
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.