Game for laugh? Daft as a brush? Fit for anything?
Whatever description is used for the adventure Anto ‘Butch’ Cronin set out on this weekend can be used without fear of contradiction.
Pictures: Valerie O’Sullivan
He set out on the gruelling 175km Ring of Kerry charity cycle on a giant penny-farthing – with no brakes, no gears and a fixed front wheel.
Pedalling uphill was no bother at all, he conceded afterwards, but trying to limit his speed to below 30km per hour when going downhill – pretty wise when you’ve no brakes – proved more tricky.
“The secret was to not stop pedalling and to let the 48-inch fixed wheel do its thing,” he said.
Schoolteacher Anto, from Ballydowney in Killarney, took on the challenge to raise funds for and awareness of the Kerry Mountain Rescue Team and he certainly helped boost the profile of the organisation through his madcap adventure.
“It was no bother really and I really enjoyed it,” he told KillarneyToday.com.
“Brendan Coffey of the Kerry Mountain Rescue Team approached me to do it and I couldn’t say no to him.
“He backed me 100 per cent and even accompanied me on training spins. He was an enormous help,” said Anto, the son of Caith and the late Tommy Cronin.
Picture: Conor Healy
He described the task as like being asked to run a half marathon backwards.
“It’s a complex enough challenge as the wheels are solid rubber with no air in them and the penny-farthing has no springs. It’s like cycling on a coin,” he said.
Recovering at his home in Ballydowney this Sunday, Anto said he was feeling grand and was in good shape physically.
And the experience wasn’t entirely new to him as he undertook the same marathon journey on the same penny-farthing in 2018 in aid of the Ian O’Connell Foundation.
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