ONCE again hundreds of cyclists peddled across the beautiful Borders of Scotland on Sunday supporting Doddie Weir in his quest to find a cure for motor neurone disease.
The participants came from as far north as Banchory and as far south as London to take part in Doddie’5 Ride 2022, and the event which was broadcast live on the Border Telegraph facebook page was watched by viewers from across the globe including New York and Australia.
The annual event aims to raise much needed funds for the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation and as usual there were three routes with distances and difficulty for all ages and abilities.
The last two rides had taken place in heavy rain but on this occasion there was only a slight drizzle as the cyclist started to arrive at the Greenyards around 7am to register.
Despite the early start, everyone was in good spirits and many of those taking part wore the yellow and blue coloured merchandise associated with Doddie.
Some were veterans of the ride while others were taking part for the first time.
Many of the groups were from the Borders with Melrose, Galashiels, Hawick, Selkirk, St Boswells and Peebles represented.
Highlight of the day was the appearance of the great man on his motor bike which was greeted by a huge round of applause from everyone present.
Doddie then took up his position at the start line to wave the first group off for Doddie’5 ‘Big Yin,’ the gruelling 93 miles route via Kelso and Coldstream with a well-earned lunch at Jed-Forest RFC.
An hour later the 60-mile Doddie’5 Classic took off and headed to Earlston, Kelso, Jedburgh and Hawick, then at 10am the 22-mile Doddie’5 Challenge took off through Earlston then Smailholm and back to Melrose.
All the money raised on Sunday will go to aid research into the causes of motor neuron disease and investigate potential cures and to make grants available to individuals suffering from this terrible disease to enable them to live as fulfilled a life as possible.
Doddie said: “It is frustrating that there has been so little progress over the last two decades. I want to push the need for research into MND further up the agenda. We may be too late in finding to something that can help me, but I am committed to doing everything I can to help find a cure.”
PS The Lion is Roger Utley
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