Fun Tours Continue
The eleventh ride in the 2012 fun tour series took place last Saturday 17th November from Rex Bonar house, Railway Street Ballymena.
This was the first opportunity, for those with full attendance, to earn their gold medals. The dry although very cold conditions helped encourage a turnout of 61 cyclists.
The 29 strong touring section group completed a challenging ride to Rathkenny, Martinstown, Cargan, Glenariff, and Waterfoot then around the coast road before tackling the three miles climb of Glencloy. The final miles in through the Braid were into a headwind but no one seemed to mind as the rain stayed away and everyone completed the ride safely.
Martin Ruddy gave me another accurate account of the "B” group’s ride which took in Glarryford, Dunloy, Ballymoney, Balnamore, Mountsandel, Coleraine, Castleroe, Aghadowey, Kilrea then up the climb over the Craig’s Moss and into Cullybackey and back to base. This was a total of 56 miles at 18.3mph.
Saturday’s list of gold medallists reads;
Maura Bradley, Jim Doherty, Alan Donegan, John and Sean Elliott, Ronnie and Iris Grant, Pius McKernan, Paddy Mooney, Martin Ruddy, Danny O’Loan, and of course Rex Bonar, who opens up the premises and looks after the parking each week.
Six riders earned their silver medal, for eight tours. They are: Siobhan Fisher, Nigel Kernohan, Patsy McGurk, Alastair Petticrew, Caolan Stuart and Andrew Wills.
Four riders earned bronze, for completing their fifth tour. They are: Hall Booth, Donna Carroll, Tom Douds and Alice McClean.
The mayor, Alderman PJ McAvoy, will hold a reception in the town hall at the conclusion of the series when all the medals and certificates will be presented and the charity donations handed over to the Chernobyl Children’s appeal NI. This year’s target total is £900 and although there were no additional donations on Saturday the fund is standing at £897, many thanks to all participants.
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