Wheelers host ice cream run on Old Rail Trail for Bike Week

Lakeside Wheelers club notes

National Bike Week

The 2026 National Bike Week ran from May 9 to 17 and the club were active throughout with some exciting new events. On the Thursday evening, club Secretary, Eugene Duffy organised an ice cream spin on the Old Rail Trail, which attracted a good crowd and everyone enjoyed the trip to Ballinea and back, but as usual, they enjoyed the ice cream and snacks even better.

Well done to all who took part and thanks to Westmeath Sports Partnership and Westmeath County Council for assisting with this promotion.

There was a collaboration of sorts on Tuesday between Lakeside Wheelers and Shannonside CC when Shay O’Toole joined Jim Maguire to bring a cycling skills, turbo and Wattbike workshop to St Patrick’s National School, Edmonton, Killucan.

It proved to be a popular exercise and staff and students were eager to try their luck with a Zwift session and see what power they could put out on the Wattbike. Thanks to school principal Kevin Maguire for facilitating this Bike Week event.

All Ireland Football Championships

Due to the ongoing success of the Westmeath GAA team in the All Ireland Football Championships, the committee of Lakeside Wheelers were left with no real option but to postpone the club’s annual sportive.

The Tour of the Lakes was scheduled to take place on June 14, but when the draw for the next round of the football was revealed, the committee faced a bit of a dilemma.

In the end, it was an easy decision as it was accepted that several members would be heading to Salthill to cheer on the boys in maroon and white, so the postponement was announced on Thursday evening of last week.

Luckily there was a gap in the leisure events calendar and the Tour has been rescheduled for Sunday September 6.

Everyone at Lakeside Wheelers Mullingar wishes the Westmeath team and management all the best of luck against Galway on June 14.

Midland League

With June now upon us, the Midland League is well underway and into Round 6 which was hosted by Longford Cycling Club last Thursday evening. So far Lakeside Wheelers riders have featured strongly in all races but lady luck has evaded them, however with several more rounds to go there is plenty of time for someone to get their hands in the air soon.

Sportives and Gravel

Club members have also been very active on the sportive front with groups participating in some of the biggest events of the year to date. The Tour of Connemara and the Ring of Beara both took place in recent weeks whilst the long running Wicklow 100 and 200 events took place last weekend. Well done to Wicklow first timers, Ger Moore and Johnny Sexton who both completed the 100km event and to Mark Cunningham for his endurance over the very hard 200km event.

Whilst the lads were thrashing through the wind and rain in Wicklow, I am sure they were wondering why they didn’t opt for the warm weather camp that another group of members are currently on in Spain. Paddy Gorman, Pete Faulkner, Mick Butler, Padraig Murtagh, Andre Barbosa and Martin Nally are all bound for the hills of Donegal in late July so they headed to Gandia in Spain for some altitude training last week. Enjoy the sunshine lads.

On the gravel racing front, Peter Rimmer and Richie Lenehan made the short ferry trip to Scotland to take part in The Gralloch which is a tough one-day race held in Galloway Forest Park in South-West Scotland.

The lads took on the 110km route which is mostly off-road on rough gravel terrain and features 1,800m of climbing. This event is part of the UCI World Gravel Series with participants aiming to qualify for the finals in Australia later in the year, which is exactly what Richie managed to do. Well done lads and let’s see if Richie makes it to Oz.

Mullingar GP

This year’s Mullingar GP will be staged on Sunday July 5ton the usual 34km circuit that starts and finishes in Multyfarnham and takes the riders through Crookedwood, Castlepollard and Coole. Race organisers have been very busy in recent months getting everything in place for this Cycling Ireland National Series event and are looking forward to an exciting day of racing.

As with all major events, volunteers are badly needed to ensure the GP runs off smoothly. There will be messages sent out requesting assistance over the next few days and members are asked to respond to these ASAP as this will make it much easier for chief Marshall, Jack Nugent to plan and make the route safe.

Don’t forget the annual post-race BBQ with complimentary drinks and food will be held on the evening of the GP in the Chambers Bar on Mount St. This is always a great social occasion and a way for the committee to thank all those who helped out on the day.