Cycling Reports |
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Carrick-on-Suir has a long tradition of producing top class Irish cyclists and in the small town nestling in the shadow of the Slievenamon and Comeragh mountains, Martin 0'Loughlin is one of the current crop who have made it into the senior Irish national squad. Martin tells the story so far to Gerry McManus. It began in 1980 when as a thirteen year-old he was in awe of the town's famous son, Sean Kelly. "I actually bought my first racing shoes from Sean in 1980 when he came home in the winter," recalls Martin: "He was racing with the professional Flandria team and used to come back with a boot full of gear at the end of the season and sell it to the lads. In those early days he used to lead out Freddy Maertens who was team leader at the time." " I raced regularly but the races were short and always finished in a bunch sprint. It was very frustrating and at one stage I had nineteen successive third places behind the same two guys. As soon as the races got longer, I get better and I got third on the Mannin Veg race on the Isle of Man when I was 16." He was noticed as a junior and was on the national squad as well as being a Carrick Wheeler. He was a natural athlete and all-round sportsman. He had followed another family member, Eamonn Hartley, who had already tasted success as All-Ireland schoolboy champion in the 1970's.
That Rás was his last for a while as he stopped racing for fiveyears whilst he qualified in teacher training college and took a job in England in 1989. He raced for a while with the Kent based Gemini club but never really took to racing on UK roads. On returning home in 1992 he was back on the bike and never one to decline a challenge, was back in competition winning the Nolan Trophy in Kilkenny and rode again in the Rás. "I don't remember exactly when and how it started but I was always in constant pain during the Rás. My back was so badly injured that I put the bike in the garage and literally didn't touch it again for seven years until 1999." Still in teaching, Martin was working during the summer break in that year. " I took a job as a tour-guide with a U.S. company that ran cycling holidays in Ireland," says Martin: "I took groups out for 20 or so miles each day around Clare, Connemara, and Galway. I felt good so I kept on the bike in September, as the weather was good. My form started to come back and I managed to get out with groups again but nothing too serious until October. Eddie O'Donohue had just won the national hill climb championship and somehow I managed to drop him on one of the climbs on our training run. So I thought I might still have something." The following year he clocked up over 14,000 miles. "I was very pleased with my 2000 season with wins in the Gene Moriarty Cup, Munster Senior Championships, a stage in the Tour of Munster and the season proved to be a great spring-board for me for 2001," he says. 2001 marked another point in his cycling career when at the age of 33, the phone finally rang from the ICF when he was selected for the Lincoln GP in England. The event is a tough UCI classified race with a difficult steep cobbled climb and he played a good team role, with Ireland gaining valuable UCI points when Morgan Fox took fourth spot. So what was it like to pull on the green jersey as a senior? "It was something I always wanted to do, to represent Ireland. I always remembered putting the green jersey on when I was a junior. It was a proud moment."
There was also another visit to England in August guest riding for the London Irish Cycle Club in the Surrey League 5-day. He took third in stage one and helped teammate Tim Barry to third overall despite not having fully recovered from a crash sustained in the Gene Moriarty race two weeks before. The Carrick Wheelers continue to prove a good base for success stories and as Chairman, Martin continues to work behind the scenes for one of Ireland's most successful clubs, as well as having served on various National and Regional cycling committees in the past. "We have had a strong presence in all categories" says Martin: "Paddy Power and Sean McIlroy continue to do well in Veterans events. John 0'Shea has raced in the junior tours of Ireland and Holland last year and Cian Power took the silver in the junior road race championships. Eddie Keogh and Mark Power have made successful comebacks to the senior ranks too. Numbers are not as great as the were in the 80's and early nineties when we had over 100 riders but we still have 65 this year." So what are the goals for 2002? "For my first major event I'm going to ride the tour of Saudi Arabia in March," he enthuses: "It's a composite team put together by Bob Addy in England and there are two Scots, one English under-23 with Paul Griffin and Ray Clarke. We should call ourselves the Cycling Barbarians," he laughs. "Then we are sending a Carrick-Cidona team for the Archer GP in England in April then back home for the build up to the Rás," he says: "I hope to be selected for the Tipperary team again. Beyond that, it would be great to be selected for international duty again." This year's tough Rás route should suit O'Loughlin's strong riding style. He has had success in mountain competitions before and always appears to have an abundance of staying power in endurance events. There won't be many competitors like Martin, that have ridden the event in three decades, with the possible exception of Cycleways rider Phil Cassidy. Off the bike O'Loughlin still finds important time for family life with wife Elma, daughter Niamh (2) and son Michael (5). Teaching special needs classes full time in a school in Clonmel, this will be another season juggling his sport with other commitments but it's just possible that this could indeed be one of his best.
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"I
used to run cross-country in the winter and played football too. I preferred
Gaelic football to soccer but I began to focus more and more on cycling but I
can't say I did a lot of training in those days. However in my first senior year
in 1987, I rode the Rás for the first time. We had a strong team and with three
days to go, Stephen Spratt was in the mountains jersey and Greg Oravetz was in
the green jersey. We also had second and third places overall. Then disaster
struck when we all got food poisoning and that was it."
Other
results in 2001 included a stage win and mountains jersey in the Tour of
Munster, stage win in the tour of Ulster, third in the Des Hanlon Memorial and
victory in the Cycleways Cup.