Achill to Athens: Why a former Dublin hurler is doing a 58-day charity cycle

Cycling from Achill to Athens with two friends, Cormac Ryan is raising funds for Pieta House and Bodywhys, a charity close to heart

Stephen Ryan, Cormac Ryan, and Niall O' Donnell in Achill.

Cormac Ryan is pulled over by a roadside in Dubrovnik when he picks up the phone. The 27 year old is on day 43 of a 58-day charity cycle, which is following a route from Achill Island to Athens. The former Dublin hurler doesn't even sound tired when he answers my call. 

It’s hard to believe that he has had a pacemaker in his chest since he was 18 years old.

“I was hurling with the Dublin minor team at the time and I started getting chest pains and was breathless and then I fainted on the pitch a couple of times. They weren't really sure what was happening to me,” Cormac says.

"A couple of months later, in February 2012, they found the source of the problem and said they'd have to put a pacemaker in. It was a bit of a shock to the system.” 

Due to a fault with the electrical signals in his heart, Cormac was fitted with a pacemaker that month and told to give up contact sports. 

Hurling had been one of the biggest parts of his life leading up to the surgery - dropping the sport led to a “dark” period in his life. 

After his first surgery, he had to go under the knife twice more, once for a shoulder injury and once to get his pacemaker refitted. It was recommended that he take a year out of college. Around the same time, he lost his beloved grandfather.

He stopped sleeping, began to eat less, and, gradually, developed an eating disorder that he kept hidden for nine years. 

"Giving up the hurling slowly sparked the issue with food and it all just spiralled really. I was too afraid to tell anyone - paralysed by society's expectations of what it is to be a man. I was convinced that men couldn’t get eating disorders,” he says.

“But anyone can get an eating disorder and it is a burden like no other. It consumes your mind and destroys your self-worth... however recovery is possible.” 

Raising awareness

Stephen Ryan, Cormac Ryan, and Niall O'Donnell

Cormac was discharged from Lois Bridges treatment centre one week before heading on the Achill to Athens cycle last month. He spent two months in the centre, where he said he was introduced to some of the "bravest" people he's ever met.

"I've learned how to eat again. I've learned how to trust food again. Most importantly, I've learned that it was never really about the food. It was about me and my perception of myself," he says.

"The last few months have been both the darkest and brightest period of my life. I still have a journey to go on, but for the first time in years I know who I am and I can't begin to explain how nice it feels to say that."

The 5,000km Achill to Athens route is the third big charity cycle he has undertaken, having been inspired to organise two other 1,200km cycles around the Irish coastline for various cardiac charities following his surgeries.

"I just wanted to raise awareness about what happened and to encourage people to get screened. We did it in 2013 and again in 2015 and raised about €60k between the two cycles,” he says.

"Ever since, I've always had this idea about going across America by bike. I don't really know where it came from but I always thought it would be cool to power yourself across a continent with your own legs. But, life got in the way. I went to college and did my master’s degree in physiotherapy.

"Two years into working, I decided that if I didn’t have a crack at it now, I never would.” 

So, last year, Cormac finally decided to pursue his dream, teaming up with his cousin Stephen Ryan from Westport, and friend Niall O’Donnell, who also lives in Dublin.

"Our original plan was to cycle from San Francisco to New York, but Covid put that to bed. My younger brother actually came up with the Achill to Athens idea and it's been amazing. It's obviously physically demanding, and also mentally tough, to go day after day but it's been the most incredible experience," Cormac says.

"We're going through all these tiny towns and villages that we'd never see otherwise. People go to Croatia to see Split and Hvar but we've come down through the whole country, meeting all these local people. It's unbelievable."

A long road

Niall O' Donnell, Cormac Ryan, and Stephen Ryan on day seven, where they cycled 126km from Saintes to Bordeux in France.

On September 1, the group started off from Achill and cycled across to Dublin to fly to the northwest coast of France. From there, they made their way along the French and Spanish border towards the Alps in northern Italy.

After they cycled through Milan, Lake Garda, Venice, and other Italian beauty spots, they dipped into Slovenia, arced to Lake Bled and cycled across the Alps again into Austra, Budapest, Hungary, and onto the Croatian coast. During the final two weeks, the cyclists will finish off in Athens via the coast of Greece. 

"It's a bit surreal sometimes. We don't think much of it and then every so often we'll be sitting having dinner in a random city and be like, 'wait, we actually cycled here',” Cormac says with a laugh.

"We trained hard because we first thought we were training to do America and the thought of that was really daunting. In America, you could be in barren stretches for 200 kilometres, so the fear of that made us train pretty well.

“We just tried to get out on the bike for as many days in a row as possible and to do 100km a day. It wasn't about going as fast as you could but going long distances at a reasonable place and thankfully, it has stood to us. We've been able to enjoy it because we're fit enough.

Regardless, it's been a long road to get to day 43, and even for a group of seasoned cyclists, a two-month-long journey can be a slog. The hardest element has been staying strong mentally.

"We are physically tired but it's more mentally tough. We don't have a support van so any gear we want to bring - clothes, food, water - we have to carry it on our bikes and we have about 20 kilos of gear each. We're also not on typical road bikes, we're on gravel bikes, which are a cross between a road bike and a mountain bike. They're more heavy-duty and don't move quite as fast,” he says.

"Then you get in somewhere in the evening and you're tired but you need to find somewhere to get food, you have to think about breakfast for the next morning, find a campsite. That's the hardest element."

'More in life'

On day 18, the group cycled 160km from Embrun to Turin in the French Alps.

All three of the men took career breaks to take part in the cycle. Cormac is a physiotherapist, Stephen is a lab technician, and Niall is a primary school teacher. “We were all in a place where we felt like we could make this happen and thankfully, it’s turned out even better than any of us could have expected,” Cormac says.

Together, they have raised over €31k for Pieta House and Bodywhys, a charity particularly close to Cormac’s heart following his experience in Lois Bridges.

“The awareness this cycling trip is creating around eating disorders has been amazing. We're getting messages from people and a conversation is starting and that's one of the biggest benefits. It's equally if not more important than the money raised,” he says.

"I could never have possibly envisioned this when I was 18. It's funny how things change. I would have been very obsessive about hurling before and it was all I knew, like many young people around the country.

"But everything that has happened has made me open my eyes a bit more and it’s grounded me. I realised that there was more in life than sport and that you could do other things. It was probably a blessing in disguise in a weird way.

“Plus, we still have to get to America someday.”

To donate see idonate.ie