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Paddy Flanagan 1939 - 2000 The sudden death of Kildare cycling legend Paddy Flanagan has cast a huge shadow on the sport throughout the Country. Three times winner of the Rás Tailteann and a Caltex award winner in 1964 surely proves the calibre and ability of the man for those who hold a passing interest in the sport. For those of us who raced with him or against him, we know that awards and victories were only peripheral niceities in his approach to his beloved Bike Racing. It was so obvious to us that the hum of the tyres, the smell of the wintergreen, the banter in the dressing room or on the roadside, the training sessions where competitors could be tested and psyched were the genuine ingredients of what he really was. He was no different from any of us in that he liked to win but it was the manner of the winning that was for him all important. We knew too well that his motto was "attack when you are feeling the pinch because the others could be feeling a bit worse" and invariably we were. For Paddy bike racing was a craft to be practised to the absolute fulfillment of enjoyment and satisfaction. To achieve this his bike and body were tuned and honed to the zenith of perfection. These assets combined with a fantastic racing intelligence simply delivered us a master craftsman. He rode countless races all over Ireland, Europe and beyond sometimes winning but always giving the last ounce of his vast reservoir of strength, stamina and courage. However it was riding the Rás that put that extra elixir in his veins. The Rás for Paddy was a sacred place a sacred thing. He held it in awe, he gave it total respect he spoke of it lovingly .The weakest competitor the most irritating official were to be respected and obeyed. He rode it many many
times with Sponsored, County and National Teams. I will remember
him most of all in the white of County Kildare, a concentrated look
of determination in his eye and his brother Ned by his side. After
his first Rás victory in 1960 he asked Ned to close the dressing room
door as it was a little draughty. "close the flippin thing
yourself" said Ned "haven't I closed enough gaps for you all
week" Riding and winning the Rás in that Lilywhite jersey,
accepting the applause and sharing the joy with his team was heaven for
Paddy. He loved to revisit that heaven with family, friends and team
mates on long winter nights and long winter training sessions when the
moves that won and lost the Rás were analysed, bisected and
dissected. He was such a rare individual. He treated his
"dangermen" on and off the Bike with total regard and in
return was, one could really say, revered by them. He loved
battling with them. His accounts of battles with Shay O Hanlon and Peter
Doyle would make a winter night seem not so very long. Racing
and training was the life he loved and it gave him the people he
loved. With his bike his health his loving Wife and family his
life was complete. Sadly that is all finished now. He has
attacked again slowly disappearing into the distance on a hilly
windswept road in that white Kildare jersey. I know he wants us to
let him go this time but some other day we will reel him in. |