By Dara Smith-Naughton
Having wrapped up his 2023 season earlier this month, Daire Feeley has a set plan for the next few weeks - when he will ease off the throttle after a long racing campaign. But he tells stickybottle once he has reached a designated date, when his off season concludes, he will be back to the business of winter training.
Though his season was a great success, by the standards of others, Feeley was not satisfied. In this interview - which is a summary of his approach, and the thinking behind it, for the next few weeks and months - he says he will not be making the same mistakes he did last winter. Getting bogged down too much in data, and the "theory" of training, has gone too far and become too complicated, he says.
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“There were riders getting results against me that shouldn’t have been, this season was a good lesson for me," he says of 2023. While his season brought plenty of wins, there were also lots of 2nds and 3rds on days when that last few percentage points for victory were out of his reach; a couple of months wrecked by concussion not helping his cause.
Though Feeley also won two rounds of the Cycling Ireland National Road Series, he expresses his dissatisfaction at the year overall. He puts much of that down to a drop in the level of the training he undertook last winter.
“The lack of training last winter was a big factor," he confirms. "I know I can’t afford this coming winter season to go that way. I thrive off big volume. The best indicator of performance, is performance itself. This winter, the volume needs to be upped, it’s so important because you can’t correct it during the season.
“I know I can get results, I was kind of winging it this season to be honest. I was a totally different animal (last year) compared to what I am now. I gave my rivals an edge. For next year, Daire Feeley is not here to mess about.“
The Roscommon native is promising a renewed and refreshed rider in the 2024 campaign. And having ended a 14-year wait for an Irish Rás Tailteann win in 2022, nobody would bet against him.
“From October 1st, we’re going to knuckle down. There is no more room for error from here on in. There are a lot of talented younger guys coming through, I can’t afford to not be on it.”
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In the couple of weeks before October 1st, when he will start winter training, Feeley will continue to clock at least some miles on the bike, rather than storing it away for any period of time.
“I don’t believe in letting everything diminish and doing nothing at all; training in disguise is what I call it," he says of going for social rides.
"It's just riding the bike with my friends and incorporating a small bit of training into it. When you’re training at this level, and if you thrive in this area, you tend to thrive in other areas. You perform better at work, in the gym etc. High volume develops good habits.”
He said when he was forced off the bike after a crash in the Rás in May, when he was riding in a bid to defend his overall title, he endured a difficult time.
“I took a bang to the head and had symptoms of a concussion for two months after the crash," he said. "I initially failed the concussion assessment after the race and I probably got back into racing too quick. I was staring into space at times. I wasn’t able to drive, wasn’t able to do my job. I would get bad headaches, a lot of basic things like that.
“I previously wouldn’t have paid too much attention to it (concussion awareness) years ago. But it was my first proper concussion. My main concern was getting back to training, the people around me helped me from pushing myself too hard.”
He says he is a cyclist who firmly believes in focusing on the ‘macros’ within the sport, as opposed to drilling down too much in the very small details.
“Some riders are too focused on the theory side of things, it used to be much more skilled-focused," he says. "It’s a world of theory at the moment. There is a lot of information out there, we can tend to overcomplicate our approaches because of all that information; too dialed in with certain things and not enough into others.”
Staying particularly loyal to his sport, Feeley has no interest in dabbling in other disciplines during his pre-winter downtime.
“I don’t really take on other sports, gym work is as close as it gets to another sport," he said. "I did a bit of running in previous seasons but that just isn’t appealing to me at the moment. I love riding the bike, if you love doing something, you should do it all the time.”
