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By Michelle Crean

Yesterday (Thursday) the Ring of Kerry Charity Cycle (ROKCC) organising committee announced its decision to cancel this year’s 2021 event due to the uncertainty surrounding public health guidelines this summer. The annual event, one of Ireland’s largest charity cycling events, traditionally takes place on the first Saturday in July - but was cancelled last year as a result of the pandemic.

Following internal meetings and consultations, the organising committee felt it was best to cancel this year’s event.

ROKCC Committee Chairman Garry Galvin said the decision had been made following a review of the current public health guidelines.

“Due to the continued uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 public health position together with both Government and the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) guidelines and recommendations, the organising committee of the Ring of Kerry Charity Cycle have decided to cancel the traditional ROKCC cycle due to be held on Saturday July 3 2021," he said.
“Whilst this is very regrettable, we feel it is necessary in the best interests of all stakeholders including the health and well-being of cyclists and our many brilliant volunteers. Those cyclists that have deferred from the cancelled 2020 event will be transferred to next year’s 2022 event.”

VIRTUAL EVENT

Mr Galvin added that the committee was hoping to introduce some form of virtual event to help to mitigate any losses incurred by their chosen charity partners for this year’s event.

“Following on from the cancellation of the 2020 event and the cancellation of the 2021 event we are very conscious of the financial impact this is having on our charity partners and we hope to mitigate that loss in income by holding a virtual fundraising cycle in line with public health guidelines. This is currently in the planning stage and we will make further announcements in due course and hope that it will be well supported for the benefit of our charity partners. We would also like to say a sincere “Thank You” to our many cyclists that donated their 2020 registration fee, merchandise and online donations to charity as we were able to distribute over €30,000 to our beneficiary charities in December 2020. The charities that benefited were Ard Chúram Day Care Centre, Listowel, Banna Rescue, Breakthrough Cancer Research, Cúnamh Iveragh, Down Syndrome Ireland (Kerry branch), and St Francis Special School."

Over the course of the cycle races’ 37-year history, the Ring of Kerry Charity Cycle has raised almost €17 million for more than 160 charities.

"In more recent years, over €1 million has been raised per annum. The Ring of Kerry Charity Cycle Committee look forward to welcoming all participants to Kerry for the 2022 event and we want to thank all current registrants, volunteers and charities for their generous ongoing support. We will be issuing further notifications in due course with regard to the virtual fundraising event,” he added.
For more information visit www.ringofkerrycycle.ie or follow The Ring of Kerry Charity Cycle on Facebook or Instagram @RingofKerryCharityCycle or Twitter @ringokerrycycle.