Introducing Co-Captain - Ian Barr
IAN'S STORY
I got involved with it a couple of years back with Rob Wainwright, who is a larger than life character, an absolute legend. I was fortunate enough as a farmer to know the Weir family really well. I knew Doddie, I'd considered Doddie as a friend. Not a best friend, you know, not somebody I saw every week, but we considered them as friends.
It was all just really, really sad. I was Vice President, I think, when we went down to Cardiff, the inception of the Doddie Weir Cup, when Scotland played Wales, and went down to Wales with Doddie. Gary Armstrong looked after him everywhere he went. I always remember Gary saying; "Well, you're looking after him tonight and you've got to do everything for him". And when he said everything, he meant everything.
He was just such a larger than life character. Such an inspirational guy. So I was kind of involved then, and the following year when I took over as President of the SRU, Rob Wainwright spoke to me. I went over and presented them with the ball. That was their first ride from Murrayfield down to Cardiff for the match ball and I'd actually just had two knee operations and he said; "You could be cycling with us”. However, not that year I couldn't, so I gave him the ball at Murrayfield and wished them all the best and Lo and behold he came and spoke at my local rugby club dinner. Six months later, he announced to everybody that I was doing the challenge with him and his core team from Cardiff back up to Edinburgh. So the only thing he'd forgotten to do was ask me to do it! He just named and shamed me so I had to do it. However, I loved every single minute of it. It was so good to engage with good rugby people. There were more than 300 cyclists there, and I was meeting so many nice people. It was a privilege to go and meet Ed Slater and his family down at Gloucester Rugby Club where Princess Anne was there and she was lovely. She was quite funny because she got out of the car and she saw me and she said to her husband: "I told you it was Ian Barr, it's the same Ian Barr, there's only one. I told you it would be the President". So, we had a bit of a chuckle about that. Rob Wainwright then got me to lift my trousers to show her my tattoo so I had to show a wee tattoo to Princess Anne. It's just a wee Ironman tattoo. I think there are two or three Ironmen in the team that are going to be doing this cycle, so it's just a wee badge of honour. Anyway, we got involved with that and we went around a whole lot of primary schools and we just spread the word about this dreadful illness, the impact it has - not only on the people that are suffering, but the families and the people that are having to care from the effect that it has on the wider community.
It used to be relatively unknown. One of my best friends is actually coming on the team with us this year. His mum died of MND many years ago when there was very, very little known about. I got involved in doing 5K and 10K runs with him and with my wife, just to raise money for MND because not a lot of people knew what it was. So I think one thing that Doddie Weir has done is just absolutely raised that awareness. He was such a larger than life character. So we're just kind of trying to give something back. It's affected quite a few high profile people in the rugby community, but it's not a rugby illness. It's crossing over all different sports, but every walk of life.
WHY THIS PARTICULAR CHALLENGE?
We did the one last year and Rob Wainwright kind of threw out there that potentially the following year we'd go to Rome. Then one of the other guys, a guy called Russ Kesley, said they'd like to go around all the stadiums. Rob Boyns and I put our heads together and said, you know, let's do it. Let's do it in seven days.
Dublin, then back to North Wales, cycle down to Cardiff over the Severn Bridge, down to Folkestone. We're then going down through France for two days, down to the Alps, down near Grenoble. And then we're going to Monaco, which is our big major coup. So I had the privilege of meeting Prince Albert at Murrayfield a few years back. I was asked if anybody knew anyone in Monaco? And I said: 'Well, I only know one person. So I could send them an email and see what he's doing."
So we did that on the basis that if you don't ask, you don't get! So Prince Albert is going to meet us in Monaco. Rob Wainwright and I had a discussion, because it's all Rob's ideas. He comes up with these crazy things in the background. So we're working very closely with him and the main, My Name is Doddie Foundation. But we've got a separate team that are in there. And we've enlisted Roger Baird, who's ex-Scotland and British and Irish Lion as our ambassador.
We were wondering how we engaged with the Italians, because the Doddie Weir Cup was Scotland versus Wales. But this is the longest ride you can have in the six nations. So I've met Marcello Cuttitta a few times who was, or still is, an Italian legend. And unfortunately it was his twin brother, Massimo, who contracted COVID and passed away. They lost their mum at the same time. Italy were really, really badly affected by Covid at that point.
Anyway, Scotland play Italy for the Cuttitta Cup. So I asked Rob Wainwright's permission to get Marcello to come up and join us in Monaco and give him the match ball? So Rob Wainwright has entrusted us to take one of the match balls down to Monaco. We'll hand that over via Prince Albert to Marcello - and he can take the ball down to Rome, look after it for a day or two, and then take it onto the pitch before the game.
We just thought that would be really fitting, particularly when it's in memory of his twin brother. So that's what we're doing. So, yes, a crazy challenge. 16 riders, teams of four. So it's a joint Welsh, Scottish, English venture, and there's a fantastic team of people doing all the organisation in the background. We've got a local garage here at Dalkeith Ford Centre who've supplied us with four vehicles. They're absolutely brilliant. And we've got Mark Walker doing all the kit for our team. We're trying to bring in as many sponsors as we can for our particular team and for the individual riders.
We're working very, very closely and under the umbrella of Rob Wainwright and the main My Name's Doddie Foundation. So yes, it's going to be challenging, particularly when it's the end of February, beginning of March, that we're gonna be doing all that cycling. I'm really looking forward to it.
PRINCE ALBERT
Well, I've met him at Murrayfield a couple of times. It's actually quite a strange story because we got talking. He invited us out one night, invited my wife and I out to the Balmoral Hotel. I was sitting at a table, and he was at a table behind us, and my wife talks to anybody - and she was having a great chat with him. He asked what we were doing later. Usually after these things, we'd nip home, maybe past the local chippy, get some chips and sit down and watch the rugby again. However, he asked if we'd like to come and join him in the hotel and so we did. We joined them and we had a fantastic evening with a really interesting guy. I didn't realise his sporting connections. He's a former Olympian and he's involved with the Olympic Committee, et cetera, et cetera. So we kept in touch via email and I was going to meet him when we went down to Nice pre-COVID. Scotland had a friendly game down there, but he sent an email the day before saying unfortunately he couldn't make it. So there'd been a wee bit of correspondence back and forward, but not much. So then I thought; "Well, I've still got your email address, I'll just ping you something and just see if you remember me". So yes, that's been great.
We did a wee podcast too, with Bruce Aitchison, who we've now managed to get onto the team as well. Bruce was desperate to come, so we've got him on board. Hopefully, we can really rattle the tin and get some people to put some money in because we are trying to raise as much money as we can.
