PEDAL POWER

The DFB Cycling Club’s annual charity fundraiser continues to grow in stature and success, with almost 300 people gathering at the Training Centre on Saturday, 8 October, to take part in the Staying in the Saddle for Prostate Cancer sportive.

Cycling Ireland members could register for €35 (non-members €45), with goody bags, food and a bespoke nisher medal awarded to every participant, and all proceeds going to the Beaumont Foundation Rapid Access Prostate Clinic.

“We actually had to stop the registration at 300 people for logistical reasons, based on what we knew we could handle from previous years,” S/O Brendan Lodola of A Watch Donnybrook tells me. “We had 270 cyclists on the day, with a lot of DFB members but also a wide range of people coming from all over Leinster to take part.

“We had sent out the details of the event to all of the club secretaries when we registered it with Cycling Ireland, and in the end 80% of participants were from other cycling clubs, so the response was great.”

Route

With 50km and 115km routes to choose from, the majority of cyclists opted for the longer one.

“Some of them might have wished they’d chosen the shorter route,” S/O Lodola tells me, “because although it was a lovely day, it is a long cycle!”

Starting at the Training Centre, the route took cyclists out to the Howth Road, and he says the sight was something to behold.

“We have a great relationship with the Gardaí, especially Inspector Brian Cullen, and they made sure we had an escort as far as Howth, which made for a great spectacle because there was a line of around 2 miles long of cyclists.”

From Howth, the escort le the group as lead vehicles took over, and the cyclists pedalled their way through Portmarnock, Malahide and Swords, where 50km participants could enjoy a food and water stop. ose on the shorter route took a le turn a er Swords and headed back towards the Malahide Road, then on to the Training Centre, while the longer route turned right at Swords and went through Ballyboughal, e Naul, then to Bellewstown, back through Garristown, St Margaret’s, Ballymun, across the motorway and down to Gri th Avenue before nally reaching the Training Centre for a well-deserved rest and some great free food courtesy of Firehouse Pizza.

Thanks

“ e reception when we got back was great,” S/O Lodola tells me. “Firehouse Pizza’s Stephen O’Brien, who is also a re ghter, was once again very generous and gave us all a lovely hot meal, and there is nothing better than coming back from a long cycle to hot food.”

Of course, behind the scenes of every event such as this there is a lot of work that has to be done in terms of organising and running the day.

“ ere are a lot of people who need to be thanked,” S/O Lodola is quick to add. “Cycle Superstore are always a great help to us because they provide a mobile mechanical support van, going back and forth along the route providing repairs for anybody who needed them. Our marshals and stewards also did a great job helping people out and generally running the event safely, because the safety of participants is our primary concern at the sportive, and we put a huge e ort into that, being very fortunate over the last few years and this year to have availed of the e orts of all our marshals and AGS concerned.

“We also had great sponsors who provided us with goody bags, such as Flashpoint Systems, and of course we have to thank CFO Keeley and the Brigade Training O cer, as well as all of his sta , for allowing us to use the Training Centre facilities.

“We have to also thank the DFB Logistics and admin sta , Balbriggan re station, the DFB Sports and Social Club, all of our motorbike marshals, all of our vehicle drivers and volunteers at the food stops and throughout the day, Carol, Margaret and the girls giving out the nisher medals and making the nish so much fun, Trevor Hunt for the photographs, the DFBCC committee and members, the route mappers, DubCo, Lidl, Clontarf Cycling Club, the RSA, K&M Fruits, Fingal County Council, W Display, and all of the cyclists who took part in the event and helped us support Beaumont Rapid Access Prostate Clinic. Not to forget the families of the organisers for putting up with us working on the event during the year as it took up so much of the committee’s time.

“A special mention of thanks must also go to DFB Cycling Club’s secretary Liz Hanley of A Watch Dolphin’s Barn, and to retired S/O Joe Kiernan,” S/O Lodola tells me. “Liz does a huge amount of work in organising these events, and without her experience through her organisational skills and experience as a founder of the Triathlon Club, we’d be lost. She deserves a lot of thanks.”

Cause

is is the third time the Cycling Club has held this event, which S/O Lodola says is growing in importance, and the cause, he says, is one close not jus to himself but to a lot of people.

“I was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2015, so there is a personal aspect for me, but the committee wanted to do something to create a sportive for DFB and we wanted to initiate one to get it o the ground and then to grow, and it has been growing every year, which is great,” he says. “Prostate cancer is very common amongst re ghters – we are 28% more likely to get prostate cancer than people in other professions – so we wanted this sportive to raise funds, but also to raise awareness.

“ e Beaumont Foundation Rapid Access Prostate Clinic is a fantastic place, but they need help from charities, and having raised money for them and another cancer charity in our rst event in 2019, then for Beaumont and Children’s Hospital Ireland in 2021 (the pandemic meant the 2020 event had to be cancelled), this year we decided that all fundraising would go to the Clinic. e rst year we raised €10,000, the second year

The raised more than €14,500

€12,000, and this year we raised €14,596, so it is de nitely growing.

“It’s a great cause and our sportive raises awareness, and I’m glad to say is has gotten an amazing response from within DFB and from cyclists all over Leinster, because everybody knows someone a ected by cancer, and they come out to support us and raise that awareness.”

Growing

Plans for next year’s event are already being discussed, and S/O Lodola says it is probably going to expand to attract even more participants.

“ e CEO of the Beaumont Hospital Foundation has said he wants to come on board in a big way and put all of their charity organisation weight behind the event, so we could be getting even bigger numbers,” S/O Lodola tells me.

“Looking back, I want to give credit to everybody who was involved,” S/O Lodola says, “but the main thing was to get the awareness out there about men’s health and prostate cancer, that was the driving force behind it.”

Join Dfb Cycling Club

Anybody interested in joining DFB Cycling Club can get in touch with any member of the committee or by emailing dfbcyclingclub@gmail.com, and to whet the appetite for next year’s fundraising sportive, check out the video by scanning the QR code.