Wheelers hold 2023 AGM and the hill climb returns

Lakeside Wheelers club notes

Lakeside Wheelers held its AGM last Friday evening in the newly refurbished clubhouse and as usual, it proved to be a very interesting meeting. Club Chairman, Ed Tyrrell kicked proceedings off as he welcomed everyone and laid out the agenda for the evening. Following on from Ed’s introduction there were a series of presentations by the various club officers.

Club Secretary, Ulrika Maher gave a very comprehensive review of the committee’s activities over the past year highlighting the extensive list of events which the club hosted in 2023. Next up was Treasurer, Pearse Murphy, who informed the gathering of how the club fared financially, and thankfully his report had no bad news. Events Officer, Paul Gibney, then delivered a lengthy report on the 2023 editions of Tour of the Lakes, the Mullingar GP and the Leinster League Cyclo Cross race. All in all, the past year has been extremely busy for Lakeside Wheelers and it was great to hear that each of the events was very successful.

The next item on the agenda was to debate a committee motion which proposed to amend a segment of the membership facility within the club. Following an interesting discussion with several contributions from the floor the motion was put to a vote and subsequently passed. The outcome of this amendment means that Lakeside Wheelers will now provide any former members of the club with an option to join Lakeside Wheelers as an Associate member with certain limitations attached to this type of membership.

With that item tidied up, the often times dreaded task of electing a new committee was next up on the agenda. Thankfully there wasn’t a mass exodus and the process was pretty seamless. Ed Tyrrell and Pearse Murphy are continuing as club chairman and treasurer respectively. Outgoing secretary Ulrika Maher was replaced by Eugene Duffy and Shay O’Toole takes over the mantle as PRO from Paul Gibney. Pete Rimmer who is a long standing member of the club is new to the 2024/25 committee and he volunteered to take on the role of events officer. Breda Brady will continue in her role with responsibility for safeguarding while Eddie Hynes will be staying on as a committee member. Finally, Mark Horohoe was elected as the new club president which proved to be a very popular addition to what appears to be a very strong committee for the coming year. Outgoing president, Shay O’Toole thanked the committee for their hard work and commitment over the last year and he gave special mention to Ulrika and Paul who he stated worked tirelessly on behalf of all members for the last six years.

Finally, with the new committee in place there was only one task to complete before the meeting was brought to a close. This year, the committee decided to present some of the annual awards at the AGM instead of the Christmas party. The awards in question were, Best Newcomer which went to Mark Cunningham; Most Improved Rider which went to Paula Connolly; Best Racer which went to Neil McDermott while. For the first time in the history of the club, the award of Club person of the Year was presented jointly with Jack Nugent and Eugene Duffy being designated as the worthy winners this year. Congratulations to all recipients and well done on your achievements.

Hill Climb

The annual Hill Climb competition was resurrected this year and run off last Saturday morning in damp but relatively mild conditions. This event is always billed as a “fun” spin but once the stopwatch is produced, the fun element goes out the window. Thirty riders took to the start ramp for the 2km ride from Multyfarnham village to the gates of Wilson’s Hospital School. Afterwards all riders and timekeepers gathered in Weir’s pub for well deserved coffee and scones.

Well done to all who took part and thanks to timekeepers, Phil Wade, Billy Cunnane, Brendan Kiernan, Shay O’Toole and Paul Gibney. Results of the 2023 Hill Climb are as follows:

A Group

1st Neil McDermott, 2nd Moss Keane 3rd Pete Rimmer

B Group

1st Norman Blakeley 2nd Paul Doherty 3rd Martin Nally

C Group Ladies

1st Claire Malone 2nd Paula Connolly 3rd Ulrika Maher

C Group Men

1st Padraig Murtagh 2nd Mick Butler 3rd Jim Murray

D Group Ladies

1st Claire Lyster 2nd Cepta Dolan 3rd Breda Brady

D Group Men

1st Ciaran Moore 2nd Noel Strong 3rd Tom Sweeney