Ciaran Power photographed training at the Athens Olympics in 2004, where his 13th place remains the best by any Irish rider in the road race.
By Brian Canty
Two-time FBD Rás winner, Ciarán Power is going back to ride the race one last time next year having come out of his six-year retirement at the beginning of last year.
The 37-year-old former professional from Co Waterford – who rode with the Navigators Insurance, Linda McCartney and Pezula Cycling teams during a distinguished career - said while he knows winning the race a third time is beyond him, he’s not ruling out a stage win.
But there’s a back story to Power riding and training for Ireland’s showpiece stage race; his wife Lisa.
She is recovering from cancer and when stickybottle spoke to Power last night, he was glad to report Lisa had been given the all clear recently, though she is still undergoing chemotherapy.
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“I retired relatively young at 32 and kind of settled down to do a bit of study and set up a business and I’ve given five or six years to that. It’s up and running and it’s going okay and I guess with the year we’ve been through with Lisa having cancer, doing the Rás once more is just something I wanted to do,” explained Power.
“Lisa’s good, she has the all clear but she’s still getting treatment until next March. But she’s in good spirits and on the road to recovery. She’s actually the one behind the idea because I would’ve always said ‘I didn’t have time to do the Rás again’. But she says I’m getting fatter every year and it’s time to get into shape,” he laughed.
Power recalls the day when the idea was planted.
“I think it was one of the days Lisa was getting one of her last bouts of chemo. I said I needed a challenge because my head was wrecked and I needed something positive to go after,” he explained.
“It’s easy to say ‘I’ll do a marathon or a triathlon’ because you don’t really have to train – you can do them in a slow time. But you won’t get around Monday at the Rás if you don’t train properly.”
“So the Rás came into my mind and I’d like to go back there and do something good. I will have different goals this time though; I won’t be winning it but I definitely think there’s a stage win in me.”
And it’s set to be an all-star team, laden with experience, that he’ll ride the eight-day race with.
“The idea that I wanted to ride the Rás was just for me, but I thought if I was going to do it it’d be great to have some old friends. We were sitting down for dinner one night with (former international) Brian Kenneally and I was throwing some ideas at him."
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"And I thought it’d be great to have a team full of ex-Irish internationals, or Rás winners or Rás stage winners. So I’ve been in touch with a good few guys and there’s lots of interest but nothing definite,” said Power.
“I think there’s myself, Morgan Fox is definitely doing it, Andrew Roche’s name has been thrown around, Kenneally’s name, Michael MacNenagh – he’s good friends with Micky Smyth who will manage the team.”
“Mehall Fitzgerald is a possibility, Stephen Gallagher’s wife was throwing his name into the ring and I spoke to another past winner of the Rás just yesterday and he’s interested as well.”
“So there’s no exact team yet. Realistically you could have three or four past winners and up to 20 Rás stage winners on the team,” he added.
Being a dad and husband as well as running a business isn’t exactly conducive to training for the Rás, so Power said he will be targeting training as opposed to races next year.
“I’ve just recently started back training. I hadn’t time up until now but I’ve been getting back into it slowly and it’s the most unfit I’ve been since I stopped cycling. But the race is still six months away.”
“I’ll maybe look to do the Rás Mumhan and the Tour of Ulster and train in behind my brother’s motorbike as well instead of travelling to races. I can train in the morning early and be finished by lunchtime instead of having to go to races and be away all day.”
“I’ve a good training plan and I’m going to work with Paddy Doran and hopefully I’ll do good focused training instead of a lot of racing. I’ve got some good sponsors on board – Morgan Fox from Planet-X Ireland has given me a bike and Kinetix have come on board and given me a bike too so I’ll have no excuse; equipment-wise anyway.”
“I’ve had offers from four different clothing companies, and offers of soigneurs from my time at Navigators and Taylor Phinney’s personal soigneur has even offered to come over and help out so the story seems to be growing and growing.”
And how will that stage win come about?
“I know how to train and focus on a goal, obviously I’m going to be bigger than I used to be so I’m not going to focus on anything hilly. But hopefully one of the days will be flat and I can get up there in the sprint.”
“The Rás is a special race. I heard a whisper it might be going up Seskin Hill so that won’t suit me but we’ll see. I think we’ll be looking more towards Skerries at the end.”
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