Anthony Murray comes to his first Rás from Westport via Sydney; one of three Irish starting on Sunday with the Subaru-Albion team
By Brian Canty
When Anthony Murray left these shores for Australia last June, the last thing he expected was to be coming back a year later as part of a cycling team in his adopted homeland to race the Rás.
It’s been a remarkable 12 months for the 25-year-old Westport man and one that he’s savouring every minute of.
Murray, a former adventure racer and member of Covey Wheelers, became a victim of the recession, packed his bags and headed for Sydney. On Sunday he’ll line up alongside his teammates in the Subaru-Albion NRS Development team to take on the stars of the future when he makes his debut in Ireland’s toughest race.
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He explains how it all came about.
“Our family are based in construction and for the two years previous to coming out here, with the way Ireland is, there was no work. So I had it in my head just to come out and give cycling a chance while I wasn’t really working. I come from a footballing background and I got into cycling by accident, through adventure racing and so on. So I’ve really only been cycling properly for the last two years, with Westport Covey Wheelers.”
“Since I came to Sydney I’ve been based in Waverley and I initially joined the Eastern Suburbs Cycling Club just to keep fit, do some training and so on. My brother is working here as well and he helped me out when I came.”
“I met the other guys in the club the first week I was here, Frank Conceicao is the coach of the club and is also the DS of the Subaru team. He set me up straight away. I gave him a bit of my history and told him what I wanted to do so after a couple of months he asked me if I’d be interested in cycling more seriously and he started me on a training programme.”
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“Then we looked into setting up a cycling team here, trying to set up the Subaru team out of the club. There was a bit of depth in the club and we wanted the opportunity to race at a higher level so I was just in the right place at the right time.”
The team has quickly established itself in the state of Victoria and will compete in the Australian Premier Road Cycling Series – the equivalent of Premier Calendar in the UK. It’s a 12-man team, with three Irish in it; Murray, Armagh native Chris McAloran and David Early from Kildare. And all three are due to start the Rás on Sunday
“It’s been going well and given me a lot of opportunities,” says Murray of the team.
“They sent me away to a few races like the Noosa GP which had a lot of pro guys, I got up there overall in the Blayney to Bathurst race last week. But mainly out here it’s criterium races; a bit different to the Rás I imagine.”
Murray has never ridden the Rás so advising him on that front is the aforementioned Early, , who is the eldest member of the team and has ridden three Rásanna in the past.
“It’s going to be my first stage race of any kind. It’s a development team so it’s about gaining experience, we can’t really look at it as anything other than that. We can’t expect anything really, to get around it is my first objective and we’ll go from there. I’m just looking forward to it.”
He said it’s quite a change from training and racing back home.
“The weather definitely is the best thing compared to home but it’s a lot harder here because you’ve to be on the road here at half four in the morning to avoid traffic, it’s an absolute nightmare. We cycle about an hour just to get out past traffic lights so it’s not as easy here. We’re finished training at nine or ten in the morning but I’m sure it’ll be worth it when I get back to Ireland. I can’t wait for it.”
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