On Saturday 26th November, Cycling Ireland hosted its 2016 Awards Night in the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Santry, Dublin. The night was a celebration of the cycling events and developments of 2016, across the many strands of the activity and sport of cycling. Cyclist.ie was represented by its new Chairperson, Colm Ryder, and by National Cycling Coordinator, Dr. Damien Ó Tuama.
Cyclist.ie’s work – and the new collaboration with Cycling Ireland – was highlighted. A new video explaining what the collaboration is about was shown to the 200 or so guests at the event. This was followed by an on-stage interview with Damien and the Secretary General of the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF), Dr. Bernhard Ensink – as pictured here with Declan Quigley, MC for the event. Damien and Bernhard stressed the importance of making everyday cycling safe and normal, and for proper investment to be made in high quality cycling interventions. The ECF and World Cycling Alliance proposal that there needs to be a designated UN World Bicycle Day received a great reaction from the attendees.
Bernhard had been in Dublin with a team from ECF as a result of Dublin City being short-listed, along with Helsinki, to host the prestigious 2019 Velo-city International Cycling Conference. The ECF team spent three days exploring the city and meeting key figures including Minister Shane Ross, the CEO of the National Transport Authority Ms. Anne Graham, the CE of Dublin City Council, Owen Keegan, and other decision-makers. It is expected that a decision will be made on which city will host Velo-city within the next month or so. Watch this space.