The lasting legacy of Doddie Weir.
A voice floated over the chaos in Murrayfield, “Head upstairs if you want a bacon roll!”.
I have never seen a group of men move so fast. Standing there chatting to some photographers, we watched as roughly 100 cyclists nearly sprinted out of the tunnel to the hospitality area.
The hospitality area greeted me with a lively atmosphere. Everyone was chatting and laughing, getting along with good food and plenty of coffee.
On offer were some spicy chicken quesadillas, and my God, they were delicious. Especially with some salsa and guacamole on the side.
Paired with the free coffee, it was hard to imagine how anyone would not be motivated to go for a ride.
“Just the chance to see different parts of the country, with a whole group of generally nice guys”.
However, the reality of the cycle had not been lost. Going from Edinburgh to Dublin by bike for a rugby game seems a bit overkill, doesn’t it?
It’s all for a good cause though, as the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation hosts a charity cycle each year during the Six Nations Rugby competition. The campaign has been running for eight years now and is spearheaded by Weir’s teammate, Rob Wainwright.
Wiping his hands from the greasy quesadilla, cyclist Norman McLennan said, “it’s an achievement when you’re finished”.
“Just the chance to see different parts of the country, with a whole group of generally nice guys”.
The charity was started by Doddie Weir, a former International Scottish rugby player. Weir was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2017 and passed away in 2022. His aim was to raise funds for research and help those living with the condition.
Motor neurone disease is a degenerative illness that weakens the patient’s muscles, damaging the spinal cord and brain. There is currently no cure, but symptoms can be managed through medication.
Since Doddie’s passing, the charity has gone on to raise over eight million pounds, continuing the good work the Edinburgh born player started.
The support that the cyclists had leaving Murrayfield was indescribable, the crowd clapping and cheering, motivating the cyclists for the journey ahead. The prologue wasn’t advertised, an invite only event, and despite this, the energy was electric.
On leaving Murrayfield, Norman said, “We felt really good. We left with the core teams… down the side of the bypass.”
“Busy, busy roads early on but once you get into the country it spreads out quite quick”.
“After we left [Murrayfield] on Monday, we cycled down tae melrose. We stopped off at some training base by the Gyle (the Oriam) and some of the first team were training before they went off. So, we got some photos of the boys with some of the first team”.
“This is about people from all walks of lives, farmers, just getting stuck in. “
Another cyclist, professional Mark Beaumont, had a more unorthodox exit from Murrayfield.
“I offered to write a tandem with the chief exec from the Wood Foundation, and she wasn’t a politically experienced cyclist, and I thought it would be quite a lot of fun to ride together, to make sure that she could really enjoy it. It definitely made it harder than it needed to be, rather than being on my state of the art road race bike, I was on this ridiculous contraption, this tandem.”
“My main concern, leaving Murrayfield, was not crashing because Sarah, she wouldn’t mind me saying this, is more used to riding on an exercise bike in the gym rather than riding this tandem with 50 other cyclists around us as we wobbled our way out of the my field pitch was a bit scary. I was sitting on the back just; there’s nothing I could do. You can’t steer, you can’t break, you can’t change gears, you’re just on the back. You’re just a passenger. Turning your legs. So it was, it was quite exciting, but it was quite nerve-wracking as we left my film.”
There were only about 20 to 30 cyclists doing the whole route – Norman and Mark being some of them – with the other groups approaching the cycle like a relay.
Mark said, “I think I was one of the 7 or 8 who eventually finished doing the whole thing”.
“The majority of people never intended to write every mile, it was always meant to be a relay for most people”.
“A group called the Four Fat Dads. They were four guys from East Lothian, and they were just having such fun, you know? This is an expedition. You saw these guys just riding relay, having fun with it, just raising a lot of money.
This is about people from all walks of lives, farmers, just getting stuck in. “
“The last day felt like a bit of a victory lap”.
However, it wasn’t always fun. Mark, who was in one of the leading groups, spoke about the danger they faced because of the weather.
“We had to put a message on the WhatsApp groups to say to everyone, just carry on at your own risk. I mean, this was not a bit of rain. This was pretty gale 4 stuff. Hugely challenging conditions. And if you weren’t quite experienced, potentially quite dangerous conditions”.
Being from Orkney, one would think that Norman was used to riding in this type of weather.
“The problem is when you are cycling in Orkney, it’s windy in Orkney, so folks say ‘you’ll be used to the wind’ and I’m like, yes, you cycle into the wind for like 10 miles maximum, and then you turn around and you get a side wind or a back wind. So, in a 30-mile cycle, you might get 12 or 13 miles of a face wind and the rest of the time it’s either on your side or on your back. But when we cycled to Dublin, it was nearly 600 miles of face wind. Every day was a face wind”.
The route went from Melrose – Doddies final resting place – down through Leeds. From Leeds, the cyclists went to Gloucester and then to Pembroke Docks. From there they got the Ferry across to Ireland and finally headed up towards Dublin.
On their final day before crossing the ocean to Ireland, Norman said, “it rained all day. It never stopped raining. So, I was soaked. We were cycling for 2 or 3 hours, and I was changing my clothes, putting on dry clothes, putting it in the front of the van to dry and going again for another 3 hours and just kinda working like that to try and stay warm.”
“The ferry was delayed because of the storm, so the ferry that was due to leave at 2;30 didn’t leave until 10:30 the next day, because the weather was that bad.”
“You chat to people now and they’re like, that was amazing. And I was like that’s not what you were saying at the time.”
Getting into Dublin was a relief, as Mark said, “The last day felt like a bit of a victory lap”.
Norman compared Dublin to Glasgow, “you’re going through all these little villages that all link together, so you’re never in the country.
There were folk cheering at the side of the road and it was really quite good going into Dublin.
Not everybody knew what we were doing, but quite a few did, with quite a few tooting their horns and shouting at us and stuff like that”.
The cycle ended up raising over £1.2 million for MND research.
Mark said, “it’s amazing how people reflect on it. You chat to people now and they’re like, that was amazing. And I was like that’s not what you were saying at the time. I think that the hardship and the weather made it all the more effective in terms of the fundraising. People saw the videos and dug incredibly deep, and that’s when we saw the fundraising spike. So, while we don’t go looking for it, I think, in actual fact, the conditions made the event really special this year”.
Not only do events like this raise money for good causes, but it brings out a community. People from all different walks of life come together to support those who need it, give their love and time to those who will receive it.
Folk believe in the causes they are supporting, building resilience and giving those in the community a sense of purpose. In the case of Doddie Weir, he was a high-profile sportsman, and those who followed the sport bonded over the terrible diagnoses but were able to turn it into action for good.
