Trucker tackles Le Tour in late father’s honour
Father-of-two, Donal Harrington, 36, from Castletownbere in West Cork, finished the final stage of his epic 3,400-kilometre month-long cycling challenge on Saturday when he rolled into the fishing port to a hero’s welcome.
“I still can’t believe I’ve done it,” a fit and trim 13.5-stone Donal said.
“My father would be delighted. To be honest, I was very upset that he wasn’t there to see.
“But this proves that it can be done. The challenge was could I go from being an unhealthy, unfit, overweight truck driver to an endurance athlete in 10 months. And the answer is yes. But the cycle was just a small part of the journey.”
Donal’s father, Michael, a former chairman of Cork County Council, was so concerned about his son’s health three years ago that he bought him his first bicycle to encourage him to get healthy.
But Donal, who lives in Sligo with his wife, Elaine, and their children, Aidan, four and Olivia, two, admitted the bike sat in the shed for months.
Tragically, Michael was diagnosed with lung cancer and died before Donal ever took it out for a spin.
He said his father’s death inspired him to transform his life. He quit his job, took up cycling, and changed his lifestyle completely, losing almost four stone in a few months.
He then he decided to complete the official route of the Tour de France in his father’s memory, and to raise money for the Irish Cancer Society (ICS).
He had to abandon his first attempt last July after suffering a serious knee injury after the first stage, but he underwent intense physiotherapy and mounted a second attempt last month.
With his sister, Ella, travelling behind him in a camper van, donated by Chris Hayes from Leap, Donal began the first of 19 Tour de France stages on September 13.
And with just six rest days over the next four weeks, he spent up to 12-hours a day in the saddle to complete all stages — including the four tortuous category one climbs in the Alpes d-Heuz.
“To be honest, I couldn’t explain how tough some of the stages were,” Donal said.
“I was fully prepared for the big climbs, the iconic climbs where you do 2,500 metres in a day. I was ready for those.
“But it was some of the medium mountains that got me. There was one climb where the percentage grade was 18% — that’s the equivalent of St Patrick’s Hill in Cork — for a whole kilometre.
“I started stage nine, Issoire to Saint-Flour, at 8.30am one day and didn’t finish it until 9.30pm.
“And we chose to do it in September thinking it would be cool but they had their hottest September since 1985. I died a death on some of the stages.”
Donal swapped the Tour’s final stage into Paris in favour of a Cork to Castletownbere leg on Saturday.
He has raised about €10,000 — with the ICS getting 80% and the rest going to the palliative care unit at Bantry Hospital.
* To donate, log on to mycharity.ie/thelifecycle or www.thelifecycle.ie.
