HOW I STARTED

NAME: Eileen Byrne AGE: 51 BIRTHPLACE: Wicklow IT consultant

A WEEK in hospital after falling off my friend’s Raleigh Chopper on my way home from a game of tennis ended any fleeting romance I may have had with a bicycle. But many moons later I found my derrière back in the saddle when I was coerced by a work colleague – “Ah go on, you’re fit enough, it won’t be problem” – to join a charity event.

I bought a bike and hoped that four or five 50km spins would be enough to get me through the 130km ride. To my surprise, it did. To my bigger surprise, I wasn’t that bad. I’d broken no speed records but had found it really enjoyable and a month later I decided to join a cycling club. A star was born! Every Sunday, in hail, rain and literally some snow, I pitched up for the club spin and had some great laughs with a great bunch of people over the following years on sportives and charity cycles all over Europe. And I look forward each April to week of beautiful cycling in Mallorca with its lovely villages and challenging climbs.

I will always remember how fellow cyclists encouraged and helped me in my early days. My reason for loving cycling? The collegiality of the sharing of individual experiences.

NAME: Evelyn Doyle AGE: 73 BIRTHPLACE: Castlebar Full-time leisure cyclist

JUST over 20 years ago, following surgery on my leg, I was forbidden to take weight-bearing exercise for a few months. For the first time since growing up in Mayo in the 1940s, my bike surfaced and I began to enjoy the freedom it gave me. Later that year I joined my brother on a charity cycle from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town over a two-week period which culminated with a visit to President Nelson Mandela.

Over the past 20 years I have seen a lot of the world, met the most wonderful people, helped many charities through fundraising and achieved more than even my wildest dreams thought possible. My greatest moment has to be Land’s End to John O’Groats in 10 days and my favourite is and always will be our own Mizen to Malin.

I am a member of McNally Swords CC and four times every week I meet a mixture of club members and friends for our training spins. We cycle maybe two and a half hours around north county Dublin/Meath and we arrive home totally invigorated after four hours hard work and all the problems of the world solved! This is what I really love about cycling.