700 kilometres, from Nantes to Lourdes, for cyclists aged 23 to 66. If these twenty cyclists, including a woman, have such brave hearts, it is because these Irish people are running for a good cause: sick children and their families.
Little Cliona was a regular at Lourdes. At the Hotel La Solitude, some had been able to see him playing the piano. But she died of a brain tumor in 2006. The following year, her father created the Cliona’s Foundation to help families affected by the disease. This foundation helps them not for medical costs, but for all the extras of life, which remain to be paid. To date, it has managed to raise €250,000 to help 1,058 families.
It is therefore to publicize this cause that the runners, who left Limerick, landed in Nantes, from where they left by bike to reach Lourdes. They were also running for Limerick Hospitallers.
700 kilometers in six days
A journey marked by the heat wave during the last stage… Fergal, Finbarr and Padraig thus drank 750 liters of water on the course. “No Guinness”, they make it clear, never stingy with jokes.
But this course of six days will also have been marked by the meeting with Ronan O’Gara, Irish coach of the Stade Rochelais.
A journey that will have ended in a good mood at the hotel La Solitude, which is one of their sponsors. They unveiled the jersey there, with all of their partners.