Gort Cycle Trails – Activities May to October

Since my last post, I have been so busy I haven’t had a chance to update my website!  Now that the days are shorter and I am spending more time indoors, it’s a good moment to reflect and also plan:) Let’s see what Gort Cycle Trails activities from May to October.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I had submitted an abstract for Velocity in Leipzig about the (Social Media) campaign for RedRoute 5, and to my excitement, I got picked to take part in a panel discussion about leadership in cycling. Velocity is the largest international cycling conference, organized by the ECF ( European Cycling Federation). I went as part of the Irish Delegation, representing Cyclist.ie , where I sit on the executive board. I am grateful to Cyclist.ie for giving me the opportunity to attend, an experience I would recommend to anyone interested in cycling. You will  learn so much about cycling trends from around the world. Check out my write-up here.

Every year there are events for Bikeweek,  sponsored by Galway Sports Partnership and Galway County Council! This year the date was moved from September to May, meaning that I arrived back from Germany and immediately started with cycle training at Gort Community School. We had a fabulous time with all the first-year students. It’s the second year we are organizing cycle training, taking the pupils through the Cycleright Program, followed by a group cycle taking almost 120 second-year school students to Coole Park via the #GortMiniGreenway. We were extremely lucky with the weather with both activities. This was only possible thanks to the amazing support by all the teachers who all happily cycled to Coole Park and Gort Gardai that helped us cycle safely through Gort!

As I am now a qualified CycleRight Instructor, I also set up a 4-week program called Zero To #GortMiniGreenway.

5 ladies signed up, and we went through the CycleRight program, focussing on basic bike skills, such as getting on and off your bike,

starting, stopping, sudden stops, turning, manoeuvring turning left, turning right, using your gears up and down a hill, rules of the road and a few guided cycles. The weather was not on our side unfortunately and except for the last session, we got drenched. I will be organizing classes again soon, this time I have secured an indoor facility should the weather not be on our side 🙂 You live and learn.

This is already the 3rd Community Cycle where we meet at the Gort Railway Station and then Cycle to Coole Park via  the #GortMiniGreenway and get treated to a treat at the Coole Park Tea Rooms.

This time we returned via the #GortMiniGreenway –  I love the video below!

I invested in an #Ebike and this was one of my first trips on it. So happy I got myself an #Ebike

I joined a team as a societal Impact Champion to investigate the opportunities there are to improve the surface quality for cyclists and pedestrians. The Team Lead is Dr Ihsan Ullah, University of Galway  and Team Co-Lead: Dr Waqar Shahid Qureshi, TU Dublin. I attended a two-day workshop about Design Thinking and the Theory of Change and met other groups that were successful in getting funding via Science Foundation Ireland. Check out more about our project here.

Longest cycle I have done so far – 65 km – I joined Wheels of Athenry as they arrived at Thoor Ballylee at 2 AM. After a short break,

we cycled onwards to Ennis. The weather had been dry but promised wet. Shortly after we left, it started to rain, and it didn’t stop till we arrived at 7 am in Ennis. Breakfast never tasted so so nice 🙂

Keep your distance signs erected

2 years ago I had a terrifying experience when I was closely overtaken by a cattle truck. Following that incident,

I attended Court twice, and  started to engage with my local councillor Geraldine Donohue to get “keep your distance ” signs.

Many emails later, I was very excited to finally see the signs on the road between Gort and Ardrahan.

Meetup of Cyclist.ie in Dublin, bringing cycling activists together from around Ireland- really enjoyed our time together!

Together with Gort Community school, I applied for a Bikelibrary in Gort via Changex.

If you are still reading… so what are the plans for the rest of the year?

I am hoping to organize a Santa Cycle & if I can find enough participants, set up cycle classes.

If not this year, definitely early January