(By Eamon Hogan)    

I was surprised to see so many dads give up the chance to have a lie in, maybe even breakfast in bed. When I announced the route we were taking, a lot of heads, including my own, were thinking the duvet might have been a better option. 

The route we were to take today was a route we took when I first joined Lakeside Wheelers, a day that will imbedded in my cycling memory for ever more. That day a certain Mr Joe Duffy pushed me up every hill from Ballymore to Mullingar, though I was in no fit state to answer him, his words of encouragement kept me going that day, and wondered would I ever be able to get to the level of fitness the B group were at. 

Well I’m getting there, and I was glad to be able to repay the complement to another Wheeler who was finding it a bit tough. What goes around comes around, never give up, and you’ll be a better person for it. Cycling, like any sport, will throw questions at you, and it’s up to you to try and find the answers. My answer was to join my friends in the C group, until I had the miles in the legs to move up, which is exactly what Breda Heneghan did this week, and joined the B’s, and got on brilliantly, well done.

It’s a straightforward route really, going through Ballynacargy, over the river Inny turning left for Tashinny, Ballymahon and onto Glasson for the tea stop. Homeward bound was equally as straightforward, (except for the odd hill or two), going through Ballymore and home, clocking up 95km. Well done chaps, now this dad is going to put his feet up and look at the football, it’s good to be the king for one day!