A history in Irish cycling, from the heart of Irish cycling | 3 local legends reflect | OFF THE BALL

Off The Ball take a trip down to O’K Cycles in Carrick-on-Suir to learn about the history of the Carrick Wheelers, and the wider impact the club has had on Irish & world cycling, ahead of L’Etape Ireland’s 100km & 150km events on Sunday the 28th of September.

We speak to Carrick club legends Sean ‘Booty’ Walsh, Martin Wall & Bobby Sheehan, the lads share their stories of growing up with Sean Kelly, the infamous gatecrashing story at the 1972 Olympics & much more!

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My name is Sean Wson and I’m a long time around. He was a bit punchy anyway. He was He wasn’t anymore. No, you’re right, man. If the tour to France was in March, you would have won it seven times. Yeah. Yeah. We threw the bikes in the corner and we went on the beer for 4 years. If you came down to Carrick to ride your bike, you were guaranteed to go home in an ambulance. [Applause] Kelly goes for it. Kelly takes it. Bennett now going the green jersey of Sam Bennett. Hello friends, my name is Sean Welsh. I started in 195758 and I had a good enjoyable life. Thank you a lot. Um my name is Martin W and I did a bit of cycling in the 60s and 70s. Okay, that’s it. You’re very bashful, Martin. My name is Bobby Sheen. I’m uh started in ‘ 67 68 as a young guy and um I’m still involved with Carrie Quillers to this day. Done a bit of cycling like Martin but not not as good as m. Yeah, we used to we used to buy fishing rods in here at one point and then bikes would be built here. There was a man working here. I think Dan Brendan was his name. Yeah, he famous. He used to build bikes for us out of nothing old bits and pieces. And that was be your first bike. You might ride a league race with it. Well, in our house there was six or seven of us racing. So we used to be fighting over the bikes. The best fell would get the best bike. Yeah. My father was one of I think one of the founder members of he used to manage the tip team. I think he seen and Jimmy my brother would have been riding the race as well. So that was kind of the way we were involved. Then it progressed for Kelly came along. So second generation. Yeah. And he came first generation. Yeah. He was he was kind of a fellow came out of nowhere. No history in cycling at all. So it’s strange you know but I think the Sean’s generation were there for you know they they were the conduit for Yeah. We were ahead of that. Without them, they wouldn’t have the club was there and so 54 the club started. Yeah. The club the tradition was there. So the fellas came like Sean Kelly, Bobby Power, all those guys, they had a club to join and the foundation was so the history of the cycling in Carrick is is huge. As a young guy, I used to go with Sean. He brought us to the races and we would be only 15 maybe 16 and they would be grown old Marus minor car old Morris minor car like and and and you’d be riding you could end up riding as a you could end up at the end of the season if you won a few prizes you’d be there was a senior be riding 100 mile races at 15 or 16 like you know but was it was a different world enjoyable I think to more yeah but there was racing then back at the turn of the century down in I remember seeing a photograph for down in Fid. Yeah. Yeah. David Coney, my brother-in-law has a photograph of his father. Yeah. And they were the only only old stone roads, you know. But but there’s there’s there’s a history going back. It was cycling was different in those days because you had one big event, the Ross Talton. It was that was the thing. That was the goal. So even in Carrick almost would have a team in it. Yeah. to be the temporary team but mostly Carrick the riders the likes of Sean then there was Mick Woods there was more more Joe cash always there was a home of cycling you can nearly say that Ros team out of the town out the mix of the two Tony Ry road horosses which yeah oh yeah and good riders good riders good riders came out of it you know the thing about all them fell was Sean Kelly as good as he became trained with all them. Yes. And they were good enough, you know, they were there in the background, but they he he used to come back when he was at his peak. He’d come back to Carrick every year. Oh, he never train through the winter with them fellas and go out and win the Parinise which was the best one of their best early season classics. So I used to say to Sean The training the training in Carrick with no Bobby power in how many did he win of he won he won that seven times seven. Yeah. And I always used to say to him if if the tour of to France was in March you would have won it seven times. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. But it used to the training in Carrick was so hard. Yeah. Like this is the thing about Carrick that if you came down to Carrick to ride your bike, you were guaranteed to go home in an ambulance. They’d kill you. Yeah. There was no mercy show, you know. They they were savage. And that’s all over the country. They used to come at one point to train in Carrick because of that because Kelly was there. Yeah. And they knew that if they wanted to race at a top level in Ireland. Now he’d go away when when the when come February or March with the team, whatever team he was riding on. But anyone any anyone like Bobby Power used to train with Kelly for the whole winter because he knew when Sean was gone, Bobby would be racing on the top level then for the rest of the year. And that was the benefit of Carrick and it’s still the same now. Would um and would there be other cyclists in Carrick that were at Sean Kelly’s level at the time or even better than you think? The thing the thing was that Sean didn’t look at it that way. Yeah, he it was a home event. He didn’t care. Like I gave up cycling when I was young, but what he used to do was he when he’d come back, he’d say, “You’re coming out training with us.” And I’d say, “Jesus, Sean, I haven’t even a bike.” He’d give me a bike cuz he knew I was strong enough to survive. He’d use me as cannon for the full ammunition. So I had my last 80 or 90 miles with him at his pace. Yeah. But he had no kind of pretention. He was just normal. He was happy to happ it was a huge kind of unwinding thing for him. Yes. To come back down to earth and go back again. You know, he didn’t live he lived a very simple kind of life for the winter all those winters. And I think that’s what kept him at the top for so long. You know, he just just came back. He was the very same. He phoned me he phoned me last night. He was still the same, you know. He was after being in the tour of at the tour of Italy all week and you could hear him commentating and he’s absolutely brilliant at that. But when he when he phones you, it’s like flipping 50 years ago. It’s the same same Kelly. Yeah. Ordinary fella, you know, and that’s what makes Kelly unique, I think, in a way, you know. I look we shouldn’t be talking about the one man all the time that’s you can’t talk about cycling without talking about Kelly because of what he did you know that’s just the way it is. Yeah. So that breeding ground in Carrick was was was what made him really and what made you like aside from Kelly aside from Kelly I suppose all the other cyclists that were breeded here as well. Oh yeah. for all the different race win on the on the local scene like well yeah there was there was fellas who had a huge influence on Sean he he learned everything from here because there was guys there who would eat you without salt is the way you put it every trick in the book would be used in in if you if you turned up as a bright young talent in character go training with Kelly and them they’d make a right fool out of you. And it was up to you to survive that. They’d say, “Okay, if he’s any good, he’ll come back again.” Some did, some didn’t. That was the survival thing that when I say they make a fool you, you might be full of power and full of energy and for the first 40 or 50 miles, they’d say to you, “Geez, you’re you’re good. You’re great.” And so you’d be out there thinking you were when your energy disappears. And there’s another 30 or 40 mile to go. Tough look, you’re left there to die. And that’s what they’d do. They’d leave you there, would you? With nothing, starving. Hard to get home. You might have What they’d say is, “We send an ambulance for you.” That was reality of it. Out on the pike coming out of Dar there was a lot of leads left. There. Yeah. There were a lot of good men. Some of them, some of them, they were so bad. Some of them would go into a house starving looking for a cup of tea or and you imagine of a Sunday people in the house seeing some fella coming in cycling gear on trembling with hunger. That’s was the reality of it. It happened to me a few times. Yes. It happened to a lot of good lot of good. Yeah. Yeah. We were on the Mitchell Town Mitchtown run. Yeah. Used to go to Mitchell Town in the winter and it was snowed. had snow the night before or something and uh we hit coming into Mitchell on the back road and it was all packed snow. Sure. We came in a bend and the whole lot went down you know but uh a few I actually got a bad start but I got I kept going. Joe Kelly North Sean’s brother Joe shepherded me home. The rest of them have to be careful what I say here because left me for the ambulances but Joe was the ambulance for me but we got as far as mill on the promise that we could go into uh Tom Kylie’s chops Kylie’s house in I I heard the story. Yeah. And he he’d he’d feed us, you know, and that and he went in and we got tart and lots of tea and all that and it got us got us to carry that day, which was a great story, but a great time. But it’s just hard for anybody to to believe how how you can weaken so much, you know, that’s that. Yeah. You know, that you think he wouldn’t make it over to the counter there like to be to be that bad. Like Joe actually had to push me into weaken but strengthened if you know what I mean. in terms of it was it was the making of you really like you know everybody had everybody went through it like yeah well it was a baptism of fire always you know it was pure savagery in a way but that was it if you survived I mean I I remember Tony Ryan said to me and Kelly one time if you survive a winter’s training you’ll win and he was right if you survive he’d have a program laid out that could be eight weeks he’d build We would know what the hell we were going to do Saturday. So it’ be Saturday and Sunday. During the week, you had to mind yourself and be okay for those two days. But he’d have it worked out. Then it could be like a 100 mile spin along the coast road or somewhere. And it was you be when you when you get home, you could be sitting in a chair for three or four hours. Not able not able to make a cup of tea. You you’re so bad. That would be Saturday. Sunday you did it again. You recovered during the week. But the the thing about that was when you got to March or April when the racing started in your back of your mind, you’re going to say, “Well, I’m after doing that.” You’re [ __ ] hell if if I don’t win after that. What the hell is it about? You know, he he had you built up that that training. And that’s what Kelly did in his pro career. He that’s that was his breeding ground and he continued that and it it actually worked for him all through his career which was amazing. I used to look at this and think how cuz the big teams they have training camps they were operating on a different level. They they were but Kelly would come home and just dabble with the lads go with the lads and and I think that’s the unique thing about Carrick, you know that that that’s there still to this day. I’d have fellas come into my house. They come down once a year. They’re afraid to go into Carrick to go train because what they say is if we go in there we won’t be able to drive back to Dublin. Yeah. They’ll get hammered. Some of them would. They’d brave it in. But for the last couple of years, they didn’t. Yeah. And Sean himself, um, last November, he he came and I said to him, “Are you going for the spin with the lads?” And in Sean’s language, he said, “They’d [ __ ] kill you.” That’s exactly what he said. Now, there’s a fellow here leap who goes with the spin. Keith Barry is up there. He knows exactly what he’s one of the culprits. He’s the biggest culprit. Yeah. So that’s kind of what Carrick is about from a cycling point of view from my from what I’ve seen. Yeah. And does Sam Bennett come back now for the Sam for the winter? Does he go through the same? Well, I’ll tell you one story about that. It was about just three years ago. Sean rung me and he said there’s nine or 10 of us gathering outside um the old ESB office. will you come in for? We’re going for a spin. So I said to him, Sean, look, I’m only doing like 25 km an hour. That’s all we’re doing, he said. You see? So stupidly enough, I cycled in. Bennett was there and about 40 other fells were there. And these were all racing men. So I was looking at him thinking, Jesus Christ. Up the clown road 35 km an hour. Yeah. We got as far as um they were doing 100 kilometers and we got as far as outside kill manhan up man valley macar. Yeah. That’s where I cracked but they faster the bastards were going. Yeah. But like you can’t believe what they tell you. You know they they went around. I didn’t last the spin. I went home over the N valley. Oh, lucky him to get home. Yeah. But when I got home, Sean called into me and he said, “Where the [ __ ] did you go?” Now, excuse the language, but this is the kind of language that goes on. I said, “Shan, I couldn’t climb. I I I just turned. We waited for you at the top of the hill for 5 minutes,” he said. You know, but and it got easy then. But how much was it going? 100 km. So, you know, you want to be fit to do that. I just wasn’t fit enough, you know. But yeah, you’ll still chance it. Well, Bennett was there and he was at the front just plowing along. No, no pressure on him. He’s a pro, you know. So, if you come to Carrick, that’s what you might come across accidentally, you know. You could just go in for an out spin with the gang and Sam Bennett could be there or Sean Kelly or anyone, you know, that’s just it. 1954 the club started. That’s a long time ago. Yes. and just going since actually it’s a long time ago. 1954. Yeah. Like Sean wrote his first Ross Hton in 1958. Jesus Christ. Like Yeah. And you rode 14 of them then after that. You never got sent. No. No. No. Not getting. Yeah. Fig got you a long way. Famous Figo story. Ross in the Fig. Yeah. How many days? Had eight years. 18. the promise of a bit of food in the pocket, you know, afraid to eat. But there was a good there was a good rivalry between Carrick when we used to travel to Dublin, we’ll say. Yeah. There was a crowd of fellas up there. Oh, you get you get recognized. They used to call us They used to call us the culies. Yeah. But they’re up today. That’s you know this was this was we knew kind of what they thought of that. We were just kind of these these rough countries m. So it gave us an incentive to beat him. That was the And when we did it was they always had all the gear, didn’t they? Well, they’d have they were the the city slickers. They had the fancy everything modern and good stuff, you know, but we were kind of building bits and pieces on bikes. You’d nearly be ashamed to go out with your bike with them, you know, but you still beat them. No, sorry. You’d still beat them. Oh, some of them after that that kind of a winter of training that I described you might not No, they were good guys as well. So you I lived in Dublin for for 5 years and I remember uh Joe Kelly introduced me to the orbit wheelers you know and I was lucky enough to come on the young Steven Roach you know along with and a guy called Steve Flynn used to organize you know and he used to organize the spin like you know but uh I remember in the winter time now the spin that they would organize like uh say before Christmas would be more of a tour than a training spin you know and they all the bikes and they’d have mud guards on them and they’d have all the kind of touring gear on. Then you come back, we go back back to Dublin after Christmas and you go out and they’d have all these real bikes and you’d be still on your Yeah. gate or break like you know and the hummers start then you know they were they were they used to train pretty hard at that stage you know but they they were they were it was an excellent introduction to the the levels of preparness like was different from caric wouldn’t be as hard as car yeah but there was a kind of a once February or March came the old training bike went away and fellas yeah the fellas would be shaving their legs and they tan the looking fit Yeah. And it was a psychological thing. You looked the part for racing, you know, that was that was kind of the way it worked. But um the rivalry was what made it competition, isn’t it? But even Kelly then he wasn’t winning every like people say, you know, he would he must have won every wasn’t. It was hard to win. Hard to win an amateur race in Ireland because there was such a tough There was nine or 10 hard men that you had to beat every Sunday and they all knew each other. They knew each other’s form. They knew each other’s tactics. So once one fell got up out of the saddle to make a move, they were all on to him like a they’d latch on to him. It was a tough Kelly used to stop and say it was easier to win in Europe than it was in Ireland because they all knew each other so well, you know, and they were tough, hardy guys as well. So, and there was a few amateurs there like there’s a picture there that guy there, Peter Dial, he was one of the best amateur bike riders in the world. Yeah, that that guy. And we were racing against him. Yeah. This fell. Look, he won. Look, he he won um he he rode the Olympics twice in Mexico and what was the other one? Um the Munich. That’s right. Right. Right. He rode the Olympics twice. Now that guy he was trash though. That guy was Kelly class, but he stayed amateur. He didn’t turn professional. He was offered a professional contract every year of his race in life. He was so good. But he still he comes to Carrick every year still. He’s nearly 80 now, but he comes down here to meet Kelly and just catch up. They they have the chat. There’s a kind of a mutual respect that’s there right up to like Sean. It’s Sean comes out to meet him. So it it’s these guys were racing at amateur level when Kelly was on the way up. Now without him he dragged Kelly’s standard up. That’s what it was about. He had to be he was going away. Well, I think he was good enough to finish in the first 10 in the tour of France. He was. Yeah. He was the captain of the Irish team who would ride the milk race which was a 14-day amateur race. the tour of Britain, tour of Scotland, and he finished third overall in that race and won the King of the Mountains and the points in the same heap of stages. He won a lot of stages. So Ireland had these kind of fellas and you were up against them every Sunday. So the standard was pretty high, you know, and so that’s what Roach came out of this that group. Yeah. out of that whole era, we say. So, I think like it’s it’s no surprise to me how how Kelly and Roach won so much because when you were up against the likes of him, you had to be that good. This was one of Kelly’s racing jersey cast. Yeah, that was his sponsor. So, was that the first one, Martin? You know, I I think uh Flandrea was the first one when he rode with Freddy Martins. What Kelly used to do with these old jerseys, he’d bring them all home. He’d give them to us. Um that was a jersey he would have given to he gave that one to me. But there’s heaps of them around. Yeah. He he used to just We used to go to the house young lad. Yeah. Where they where they lived, you know. Well, now that to me is the character that was the original Carrick Wheelers maroon and red one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And this this this jersey then without going into it too much. There was another club formed and this this was the jersey that was my jersey actually. I gave it to Shane and it was the first ones out of that club. It was a nice color Martin too. It was the Holsworth. Oh, was it? Oh, was that it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I thought that very nice. Yeah. That that was that’s what we we we we uh probably drifted out. We drifted out at the He got sponsorship. He Bobby worked with with showerings and he got sp we we used to hold a cycling um coaching week. What about that one? What do you think that was that one? What was that? Was that an upgrade? Kind of. Yeah. Was that an upgrade? That was like a tracksuit. That was like Yeah, I don’t remember that one too much. That was like the the tracksuit for that for that. I see. It looks like it. Well, it’s not really did the upgrade. We used the winter one. It’s It’s kind of a winter jersey. Yeah. But we used to get when we went from the locally made woolen ones which were wonderful in the cold but during the twice as wonderful when it rained because they soaked up the wet and uh and we went we graduated up to the this the modern as Martin said the professional type jersey which was made up by sport in England and um I remember we were holding a a coaching which was very successful in the technical school here and the minister for sport at the time was Frank Fahi Gway man. Yes, you’re right. And and I remember I I I was chairman at the time and I presented him foolishly with a jersey and two things went wrong. First thing he looked at and there was there was a there was a a Union Jack on the label and the other thing was that it was wasn’t made in Gway because uh what was this the this crowd in Gway made all the jersey GA jerseys and all that one? Yeah. And he he kind of took umbrage over not getting it. and and I tried to explain to them that I think some of the the clubs actually got onesies to make jerseys, but they had the wrong material and they just fell apart because you were you were in a jersey like probably training in the same jersey and racing in the same jersey and with the with the playing a game of football hardly enough as he is like he he’s only in it for an hour or so, you know, but you could be in that for four or five hours racing longer maybe on long. So they fell apart. But he he went off in a huff anyway. But that was and he was a bit fancy anyway. He was he wasn’t anymore. No, you’re right, man. But he didn’t hand back to Jersey. No. But the different things like but uh yeah, we we the younger crew kind of took over. Carrie Quer like um my generation I came from the we were brought up by the back of Sean and Tom K and Tom Cody P and um we kind of took over the running of the club then of course we were reading the magazines like it’s hard to believe today like Sean or Martin when you’d have to get the the tapes off of Kelly be coming home eat up the tapes or Jim Keefe the the boys just go to the tour to France and they’d be all in Dutch or you We didn’t have to be watching races international races and they’d be professional race they’d be all I still have some of them at home the old beats or what they call tapes they would be and then um we we saw from all that then of the type of stuff the gear they were wearing and the colors and all that. So we kind of that brought us to this that’s we’re still at it today like you know the younger another crowd taking over today now. So that’s that’s basically it. Will you tell us the story um of the time of the time the lads went to Olympics? Yeah. And the mares inland kind of uh I don’t know. That’s a story behind that story. I was in Rome. Was it? Well, just Munich where Well, Kelly and the McQu. Well, the was the team that went. Yeah. And that’s Liam Horner. That’s Liam Horner. Yeah. That’s the team that went. But um I met him once. Well, you see, it’s it’s it’s to do with this the splitted cycling. You see, that was a political political thing. But I I look at it now and I I we didn’t understand it at the time. We didn’t know what was going on. It was just want to race bikes, but it was you see what what happened was I don’t know if you want to go into that because it’s it’s divisive. Cheesy. All right. We don’t like to talk about it today like in so join in. What what I did what I’ve done in the last couple of years is I’ve brought the the fellas together who were on the two and they come to my house once a year and we meet each other which is fantastic and everybody’s friendly with each other now even though at the time there was animosity between the two because that was burdened into people. It it To put it to put it properly, you had a National Cycle Association and you had the ICF and and the NICF which were they were the NICF and the ICF were the national or internationally recognized bodies that they could compete in such as the Olympics and couldn’t. Yeah. Well, it was the good part about it was like in in Carrick at the time there was a split, right? And a fellow called Tony Ryan formed the other club because he wanted to write internationally. You couldn’t if you were in the NCA. The NCA was born out of Irish nationalism. it was and the British in some way beat veto out the NCA prevented him from riding international races. So there was a big problem then and any anybody like him who joined the other federation rode under the British. So this you can imagine then talking 60s now things were rough but the riders didn’t know the politics of it. They just wanted to race on their bikes. I was the same. I joined I was in in this club and I joined the ICF to ride internationally. So that was the only way you could do that. But we didn’t really understand that. Yeah. Um because it was a at the time the narrative was this crowd is better than the other crowd. This was going on. But when we were the you had the Sheam So Hanland versus the Peter Dials, you know, you had top top men on both sides, you know, which was a pity. But the the lucky part about it was Kelly came along just at the time when Tony Ryan formed that club and Kelly wouldn’t have known what’s anything about no no the politics of it. He just went in and rode his bike and suddenly he was junior champion of Ireland. He was sent to the junior world championships. He wouldn’t have known anything about the split. He would that wouldn’t have happened. We wouldn’t have had a Sean Kelly if Tony didn’t form that club. Yeah. And I rode internationally as well under the banner with Kelly. Yeah. You So the the thing was it worked good, but it did a lot of damage because the Ross Taon was the race for fellas like Sean who could work every day, train Tuesday and Thursday, race on a Sunday, ride the Ross Talton. But this international that was that was so competitive. The Ross Talton didn’t didn’t survive when and to this day now you have a kind of a half Ross Talton because what happened was all these big teams started coming to the Ross Talton. It lifted the standard but it blew out all the ordinary club managers out out of the water. They couldn’t ride it because it was too hard and too fast. And then suddenly, not suddenly but over over the years, it needed big sponsorship then to survive. So that was impossible to get over the last few years. Yeah. Was a good team. And this to me though, sorry Sean, this to me is the big loss in the whole picture. When I look at the whole picture, I wish we had the Russ Talton again that club riders could ride a race. Yeah. No, you can’t because you can’t. You have to you might ride it as a as a C3 or something, but you when Sean was riding it, he was on the tipperary team. He’d get placed in stage at the Ross Tin against the best riders in it or could win a stage. I I remember the checks, the poor, the Russians and you know the French. Yeah. You might have won you might have won big team coming to it, you know, but now we have no national tour. We we have the Ross Tlton still, but it’s a very watered down version. You can’t afford the big money to run the race. I think it costs about 10,000 a team just each team now to put them through the the race. They’d need 10 grand of a sponsorship just just for a team, you know. So, it’s changed and you only need three days of a five days. Yeah, but it a lot of other things have changed as well. The whole safety the whole the roads roads you can’t you can’t finish a race into a town anymore because there’s ballards and there’s safety and there’s problems. You finish it out the country now. So there’s no atmosphere when you finish a race. It has to be in some obscure place where there’s no crowd. There’s nothing. Sean used to always say we’re out racing for the crows. Yeah. Yeah. You know it was you know we have our our annual race now St. Patrick’s Day it’s going back yeah the Kylie Cup the Kylie Cup going back to Sean won it three times I think. Yeah but but that’s now we used to finish that in the town here like but it eventually came to the stage where where traffic was unmanageable like you know and people were given out to us and the guards weren’t happy with it. So now we have to to run it out in County Watford and finish it in in plan A in county water. Yeah. Out in the country like that. So you the only people you have there is the people that come up. No, you just have the officials there, you know, and that’s sad. The race is in Carrick top racing like that. It used to be great crowds. They used to finish down there at the G barracks and they’d all come out of the pub. Yeah. To watch the race, but you could have half the town out and everybody would know the riders. That’s gone. There’s no atmosphere. We had a great event one time with the remember the Bank of Ireland Grand Prix and we used to bring it through the town down Omani Avenue come around Glen Bower. Yeah. Out that way and we’d come up into Carrick. We wouldn’t go into the town but we used to finish it up in the main street. We’d switch down at the corner of Mani Avenue. Mhm. But a certain person there was there was there was slagging in the cycling magazine in England over this thing. for I mentioned Guinness like you know the steward was drunk which he wasn’t at all like it was just a swami um comment like but what had happened was there was a big team from England in the race and um now I was involved in it deeply and we every rider got a map of the course because a lot of wouldn’t have rode it and they also on that was a big note on it that on the last lap they went straight into the town they didn’t go the other way So, so we ended up in a ridiculous situation where you had two races finishing on the line like that. One from one side of the town and they came at the one time now. They actually sprinted through one another. So, we figured it out some way. So, we had to do double prizes. They all together, but how they didn’t hit one another is still a mystery. But it was just the first guy leading leading the race when kept on he didn’t cut through and obviously the steward that was there wasn’t alert enough to block the road with his body or whatever. But but it was the only time we had a race in Carrick where we had two races one from the left one from the right happened. Yeah. But you know one of the funny sides but nobody was hurt. So lads the uh attack by France is coming in September. It’ll be good to see a big enough kind of a cycling event in Carrick again. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. And see the crowds. Sorry Bob. What course are you picking? There’s two routes. Uh there’s a 100k route and 145k route. One of the big climbs is the Tescin is the You going up that? Are you familiar with Christ? You know, he knows where we used to train. Well, they used to go home there. Mar was actually on the real Cescan side. Yeah. The trick there was when when when we used to was on the on the nonescan side. Yeah. We used to finish training. Yeah. And you had to go up in Yeah. after the training. We used to man stay in the saddest. No, we Patrick McWade when he was coming for to to for the Nissan for a stage and we were looking around Jim Kee and Bobby and myself. I think Larry was in it and we were to show him all the different areas around the town. He was looking for a town circuit like you know and uh so when it was taught it anyway there’s few that are name to this now. Uh but we went up Sesin and we called it which was Patty we always called it Patty Grace Hill. Yeah that was it. It was never Ceskin, but uh Cescan actually went on straight. That’s where he lived up there, Martin. And then you went left where it goes now. That was up. Well, I don’t even know what the name of that was. Right. Well, they’re very tough. Are you sure about going up there? Because the water used they stopped going up there because it was fellas weren’t able to. Yeah. There’s a point. I did a place there very top there. the golf course. A lot of people will ke over there. They won’t. But Pat Pat McQuade loved the name Cesan. It had a ring to it like you know. Yeah. So he said we’ll call it ses. That’s a that’s a dirty [ __ ] climb now. The 100 km that’s doable by everyone. Yeah. The first one up as well. Yeah. the um up by they go they start here they go to road bulmers and then go up to to cor fellas want to be doing altitude training chicken core chicken core is savage month up there one year there was a stage Barry man has the a record for chicken core hasn’t he going up it oh Yeah. Um, that’s a dirty. Oh, that’s a savage one. Yeah, as well. You might have to change the route all together. I know, but we used to fly up them one time. Yeah. Nobody bother now. Like, yeah. Oh, now what would be the average kind of age group be older be like over 40 45 kind of. It’s the kind of letter cyclist now. There’ll be a gang of them that’ll be like say 10% of them will be racing. The rest of them will be going. We had it in Clar last year and we found out there were 10 or 15. So it’s all fant. Yeah, you need the the John of God ambulance. I met a guy in in in last last weekend. We were down at we had a little night out down there and this guy when he found out we were from Carrick he said oh he said I’ve cycled suskin you know last week you know and he was able he said I mean the garment let him come in and you know was able to tell his output and watts and all said and he he was he was he was closer to 70 but he was a fit looking ber now he make yourself now very similar build you and he was thrilled to bits that he had he done conquered Cesan you know brilliant and He was delighted with it, you know. And when you were training, I said back when you were younger, like I suppose now they have, you know, heart rate monitors, they have power meters, none of that. They’ve all How did you know how hard you were going or what what was there a program set out or how did how did you do that? We had well 18 miles an hour. This was the thing. Yeah. We had a fellow Tony Ryan was his name. expensive. He’d stay going at the same he he had a gear 4216. And I remember Sean used to say to me, “Fucker, up a hill, down a hill. You couldn’t he’d stay all day long. He could hammer you. He’d wear you down.” He was like our speedometer. And he knew he knew exactly how long the ride would take, how long it was. Head he was very meticulous man with with training programs and details and coaching. Yeah. We were lucky he was there. Yeah. He he was very good rider himself as well but he was totally and utterly dedicated to the sport. Yeah. And so we didn’t need any speedometers or anything with him because it 10:00 if you didn’t turn up at he’d ride out to the ESB offices, the old ESB offices out of the back of his house. He wouldn’t stop and it didn’t matter if you were Sean Kelly or if you weren’t there at 10:00, he’d go up the clown road. It was tough look. You had to catch up, you know. He was very disciplined. So he stood out to me as being the fellow responsible for a lot of the he helped everyone. Yeah. Bobby Power as well, you know, every build a bike for you. Yeah. Yeah. In his own house. He was that kind of a fellow. So dedicated. And I think Tony like was was a huge part of the whole Yeah. the whole story. I give him that. Yeah. There was one brilliant story about Tony. the the three of us went to a race in Dublin, Sean, Tony, and myself. And it was the the big race of the day and it it was it was a tough enough course at the back of the airport. I’ll always remember, but there the usual hill on it. And Kelly and myself were in the the breakaway was about eight or nine riders established at the front. But we could hear some fellow shouting, roaring back the road. And Sean said to me, “That’s Ryan,” he said. And he can’t get on. And I said to him, “Sure, [ __ ] it. He’s too far back now. What can we do?” And Sean said to me, “We better wait for him or we’ll never heal the go home in the car.” So the two of us, we hung back and he got onto the back of us. So we had to put the heads down and catch the break, which we did. So I was looking at this and there was three Carrick men in this brake. And you had the Mcuades, the Lies, and the Northern fells. So I said to myself, right, one of us has to win this race. So I sat on the back for 20 mile the whole way. When I got to the finish, I won the sprint. Tony was second and Sean was third. The three, we were first, second, and third in the race, but there was uproar because I sat on on the back. This was this was breaking the rules. We won’t say the word honor of honor. I was I scrubbed I wasn’t going to say it. But the point is the point was there was three carmen there men there. So I figured one of us had to win because it it would have been stupid if we didn’t. I didn’t think the other two would be second and third. But there was one particular fellow there Tony Lai was his name. He was after telling everyone he was going to win that race during the week. He was a top rider. Now he he couldn’t get it. He abused as the language he used after the race. But it was healthy competition for us. We won the [ __ ] thing. We didn’t care. We were from Carrick and it was just one of those things where you know it was good to come out of out of there being first, second and third from here achievements that kind of thing. After that, we heard that some of them fellas, they were they were taking weeks off work to train to beat us. Yeah. One fell in particular took two weeks off because he was cracking up. He saying, “What the [ __ ] are these fellas doing?” You know, how are they coming up here and challenging us or beating us? You know, this was the kind of rivalry was there at the time. It was good though. you know, we we had to mitch from school to to get an interview for a job or do an exam for a job as there wasn’t a job in Ireland in 70 7 or six 71 couldn’t a job we couldn’t get a job in Ireland and um or very few of them anyway and we said to the Christian brothers about that we wanted a day off to do the exam and um they said no no that’s that’s not a job for you like now we hadn’t clear what the job was some some of us saw an ad in the paper for an exam a civil service exam. So we mid school anyway and we went down and uh Bobby actually came 11th in the country on the the exam but he decided to go to university and um and Larry and myself actually got a job in the pnt at the time and we stayed there for Larry stayed there 40 years. I was there for 36 years out of that time. But when we got the job of course we had money in our pockets and what did we do? We threw the bikes in the corner and we went on the beer for four years. I thought you were going to say you bought new bikes. No, no, no. We were very bold and we we had a great time and uh we we were going on a holiday to to Morca, I remember. And uh Sean was riding the world championships in England, I think, at the time. Good. Was it Wood? Yeah. And we we we we took time to to see it in the Swiss cottage when we pub going up to the airport and before we went and we we saw it there anyway. So we had a great we were young men at the time. We had a great drinking holiday and uh at the end of the at the end of the holiday we were we said we’re going back on the bike. We have to go back on the bike and that was 77. Mhm. And we rode the Ross the next year all three of us. And uh we kept going and then I I let but when I came back to Carrick then I I concentrated on the I was too lazy. I went for the easy option. I concentrate on the administration of the track. The two boys raced for years and years and Bobby was an international rider. My great Larry ro won many races. His brother Patty Kelly was mad about him. Patty was small fell. Yeah. He was tough as nails like you know but Kelly was cracked about him you know. He’d be always going on about the crack. Have the crack with him you know. But that was that was basically it like we’re still I’m still involved in the club today anyway and and uh uh we’re still there and we’re we we run a um a kiddies night above in the the park up road on Monday night and we’re we’re starting tonight and we’re running the league down in Carl’s cross and all the riders the region will be be in that like and uh Darvin fellas Darvin Waterford fellas and all the area from the club what’s the name of that club Martin they know portfol they they run another section of it. We really run another section. So you have a continuation longer longer lead. I think there’s five or six uh events. Uh so you have maybe 10 events in total. Just a a good training for Yeah. I suppose what we’re telling you here lads now is a very watered down version of Yes. of the real story. We done well so far. Let’s not let’s not fall in the last one.