This September Crosshaven Boys' NS will open their first Special Class for pupils with Autism. Cycling enthusiast and parent of a pupil in the school, Richie Watkin, will undertake a mammoth cycling challenge to raise money for specific resources for the class. The cycling challenge he will be undertaking is on Sunday coming 2nd May and is called the Everesting Challenge which will involve Richie cycling 208 hill repeats of the hill in Brightwater and Drakespoint housing estates to get a combined elevation of Mount Everest of 8,848 metres in one ride (no sleeping). All in all Richie expects to be in the saddle for close on 20 hours.
Richie has been training for this event for quite some time. The idea started whilst in lockdown when he wasn’t able to go outside of the 2km last year so he began to do repeats of Camden Hill. George his son, who is in 3rd class would often join him too and Richie started to enjoy the spins as a release from working at home. Friends of Richie, Sham Riordan and James Cleary started doing the same repeats and once restrictions eased they would do repeat sessions together and the idea to Everest for a charity was born. Richie then had to find a hill within the 2km from home that was Everestable as Camden isn’t steep enough and is too long . So Drakes Point was the most covid proof option. James and Sham have joined him whenever they were allowed depending on restrictions and Richie admits he couldn’t have got this far without them. Since Richie started in September training for this specifically he's ridden just over 100,000m in elevation and averaged about 1000km a month.
Anyone who would wish to support this fundraiser can do so on the iDonate page
https://www.idonate.ie/fundraiser/11402629_everesting-for-crosshaven-boys--school-special-class-for-pupils-with-autism.html for a very worthy and local cause.
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