A year in Review 2019/20
As our club calendar year draws to a close we are unable to hold our annual General meeting to look back over the year gone by and plan for the year ahead. A virtual meeting poses too many challenges so the current committee will remain in place with the addition of Seosamh O’Reilly and Geraldine Fennell who will represent their groups G1 and G5. The incoming committee are Chairperson Mike Wall, Secretary Anthony Murtagh, Treasurer Michael Morley, PRO to be confirmed, Membership Officer Tomas Mac Craith, Safeguarding Officer Jason Travers, Race Director John Coleman, Youths Darren Tutty, Committee Carol Byrne, Nora Hally, Seosamh O’Reilly and Geraldine Fennell. We wish the committee the very best and thank them for continuing to keep things afloat in very difficult circumstances.
The Club has had a very successful and busy year considering the trials and changes Covid 19 threw at us. Our membership grew this year to 181 members, and all groups benefited by the bigger numbers as did the profile of the club.
On the social side of things the club hosted a very festive Christmas party held in the Anchor bar. On the night we launched our 2019 yearbook which was a beautiful keepsake for the commemorations earlier in the year. We are pleased to confirm it was a welcome addition to many bookshelves both here and abroad and a great memento for years to come. In February and before our world changed we held a very successful table quiz to raise funds for our youth riders. This event was very well supported and a great night was had by all.
The DCC jersey was not as well travelled as other years but did manage a trip to Tenerife with the G1 lads. Unfortunately the annual trip to Mallorca was cancelled as were all the usual sportifs which we love to support. However the weather was good and our members clocked up huge miles around our own locality, discovering roads much less traveled than in previous years and realizing that when the sun is shining there is no better place to be! G4 got to do the unofficial rebel tour in September and all the summer training certainly paid off, Well done folks!
We thank Kevin Forde Daybreak and Circle K for their continued sponsorship of our club and also Maurice Troy of Bob Troys, O’Mahonys Cycles, Murrays Carechoice, AHS Tuning, Radley Engineering, Dornan Engineering and Velorevolution for contributions and sponsoring prizes in events throughout the year. We ask our members to continue to support those that support us.
Our juniors had another successful year and there really wasn't an event that the lads or lassies weren't in the medal line up at various tournaments countrywide. There were podium positions at national, county and local levels. Well done Mark, Elia, Kyle, Tadhg, David, Eoin, Cal, Darragh, Max, Issabelle, Sarah abd Aoife. We are privileged as a club to have such talented athletes representing us on a national level and I am sure the club will continue to nurture and encourage our junior members in the coming year.
Our open Race was another victim of Covid and was cancelled at the last minute as was our upcoming Cyclocross race, although we do hope to hold that particular event before the year is out. We were allowed to run a series of time trials over the month of July and this was an outstanding success. Members supported the event in huge numbers and we were thrilled with its success. We hope to build on its success next year and for even more leisure riders to partake.
We had a welcome distraction in late August with a virtual challenge in aid of Breast Cancer research. The aim was for each club to cycle as many km as possible in a 10 day period to contribute to the counties overall tally. To say we embraced it with gusto would be an understatement and members were literally cycling morning, noon and night both here and abroad to support the cause. DCC claimed third position overall and were instrumental in propelling Waterford to the top of the leaderboard and claim the All-Ireland County Champions title for 2020. Well done to all for supporting such a worthy cause.
Our leisure riders in all groups planned their own goals and challenges throughout the year. All groups planned long day outs in the saddle. G5 were able to hold their annual Greenway spin and were blessed with a lovely day. Mechanicals, dodgy brakes, punctures galore, spills and thrills, lots of huffing and puffing, coffee and cake and loads of laughs and chat were still enjoyed by all our groups. We commend the individual group captains for looking after all our members so well and keeping everyone safe on the roads. So Marion, Anthony, Majella, John, Frank take a bow, and we wish you the best for the coming year. Best wishes also to Mark Radley who has taken over as G1 Captain. Thank you all so much for your dedication to the club. Finally to all our members, without you we would have no club so kudos for being there and always representing DCC in an impeccable manner when out on the roads.
We hope as a committee we did the best we could with the best interest of the club at heart always and we hope to continue this work in the year ahead.
“Alone we can do so little, Together we can do so much” ... See more
