Donncha Cuttriss cycling up St Patrick’s Hill. Picture Jim Coughlan

A Cork cyclist who has completed some of the world’s toughest races is about to face his most gruelling challenge — cycling up and down St Patrick’s Hill 100 times.
Donncha Cuttriss, left, from Mayfield will complete the challenge next month to raise awareness for Mayfield Action On Suicide. As an endurance cyclist Donncha was the first Irish cyclist to complete the individual challenge of the Race Across America, a 3,000-mile cycle from California to Maryland in just 11 days.
He has also completed the Race Around Ireland which few cyclists have managed to complete as it is a virtually non-stop cycle around the island in less than six days.
Donncha decided that for his next challenge he wanted to complete something closer to home and has decided to tackle Cork’s most infamous and steepest hill, following in the footsteps of Seán Kelly and Stephen Roche, who did the climb during the Tour of Ireland race: “I use Patrick’s Hill for my training and some days would go up and down it 10 or 20 times, so I have decided to try and do it 100 times in a row and hopefully bring some attention on Mayfield Action On Suicide.”
Donncha said he thinks he could complete the challenge in less than 12 hours and they hope to make a fun day out of it at the end of September: “I am taking part in this year’s Race Around Ireland which includes St Patrick’s Hill. It is probably the steepest element of the entire race. I don’t think there are any other sections as bad.”
Donncha said he hopes to attempt the challenge towards the end of September.