Wheelers Welcome Belgian cyclists to Mullingar

Last weekend Lakeside Wheelers welcomed some Belgian cyclists to Mullingar for three days of touring around the roads of Westmeath.

The Belgians are all members of the De Trudy’s cycling club in Geraardsbergen in the heart of Flanders Fields, widely recognised as the home of cycling.

The connection to this club was formed in 2011 when a large group of Lakeside Wheelers members went to participate in the Tour of Flanders sportive and met the De Trudy’s riders “on the town”.

Since then, some Wheelers have maintained the contact and have visited Geraardsbergen on numerous occasions for big races such as the Tour of Flanders, Paris Roubaix, the Tour de France Grand Depart from Brussels in 2019 and the 2021World Cycling Championships held in Flanders.

Unfortunately, our friends in De Trudy’s experienced great sadness last year when one of the main drivers of their club passed away. Taaf, with his wife Linda were the owners of the De Presse pub where De Trudy’s cycling club was based, and he was an extremely passionate cycling fan.

He was also a great friend to the Lakeside Wheelers members who knew him and to mark his passing, they were presented with a cycling memento in his memory over the weekend by members of the Belgian club.

The weather was really perfect for cycling last weekend and it helped to show off the greater Mullingar region in all its glory to our visitors, who were surprised at the quality of cycling in the area.

During the three days, we took the Belgians on rides that covered the north, south, east and west of Westmeath and visited places like Tullynally Castle, Fore, Lough Lene, Multyfarnham, Tyrrellspass Castle, Kilbeggan and also enjoyed a few kilometres on both the Old Rail Trail and the canal greenway.

Overall, the visit was a great success and the Belgians were extremely thankful for the hospitality shown to them every day. Thanks to Jack Nugent, Charlie Sheridan, Mick Reynolds, Eddie Hynes and Steve Franzoni in OE Bikes, who loaned the lads bikes for their visit.

Thanks also to the members of Lakeside Wheelers who joined the spins on Friday and Saturday, a gesture that the visitors really appreciated.

Racing

Last weekend the Bohermeen Cycling Club hosted the Waller Cup race in which Padraig Moran represented Lakeside Wheelers in this C1 race. Padraig stated that the last two laps of the 130km race were hectic, with attacks constantly firing off the front of the break until the winner, Lyndsey Watson (Powerhouse Sport) finally got away to clinch it.

Padraig, who is not exactly renowned for sprinting held on and claimed a great 5th place on the line. This was an excellent result for the Multyfarnham man who is currently in training for the Ras Tailteann which takes place from May 21 to 25. It will be a good confidence boost leading into what will be one of his major goals for this season. There will be more Ras news in the coming weeks.

Biking Blitz

The latest round of the Biking Blitz league was held in Kinnity, Offaly, where Lakeside Wheelers were represented by Peter Rimmer, Richie Lenehan and Steve Franzoni.

There weres two days of racing action on Saturday and Sunday, Richie racing on both days while Steve and Peter raced on Sunday. There was no silverware on this occasion but the three lads did well in their respective events and managed to complete the races each day.