A Dubliner who competes in Ironman, John Blake, was doing efforts out training on Monday in Co Wicklow when he came upon a Garda speed check and was pulled over for riding at 62kmph in a 50km zone.
Though he could not be prosecuted for speeding, the garda carrying out the speed checks told him he could be fined €40 for reckless cycling, though he let the matter go after warning Blake that he had to take more care in future.
The offence relating to reckless cycling is "riding a bicycle without due care and attention". Last year the Garda said 18 cyclists had been prosecuted for that offence in 2023.
Blake, a 45-year-old from Ballybrack in south Dublin, told stickybottle he was trying out his new 58-tooth chainring near Jack White's Pub on the old N11 when he saw a garda ahead of him doing the speed check.
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Having been pulled over to the roadside, the garda asked Blake how fast he was going. And when the Dubliner said he wasn't sure, he was told he was traveling at 62kmph in a 50km zone.
"I was on the Hammond TT route - from the Beehive to Arklow and back, that's my normal training route," he said, adding on the way back he had built up speed as he rode towards Jack Whites.
"I was just cruising as I had only upgraded the front chainring to a 58. I'm racing in Venice, so I wanted to see what it was like. I was giving it beans and the next thing I looked up and he was standing there."
Though the garda was unimpressed, and took out his notebook as if to begin the process of taking Blake's details, he let him continue on his way after giving him a talking to.
"He said to me 'put the word out there (to cyclists) that you can't be speeding, you don't own the roads, you need to be careful and you can't have your head down stuck between the bars'. But he was sound enough, to be fair."
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While the garda declined to show Blake the read-out of his speed on the speed gun, when he got home and checked his training file the speed the garda told him he was traveling at tallied with the file.
Blake stressed while he competed in Ironman, and has some sponsorship deals with Hed wheels, VeloRevolution and Precising nutrition, he was not an elite athlete. He said other cyclists who trained on the same stretch of road would pass him during their efforts.
"I'm more of an Instagram cyclist," Blake laughed, adding he had worked to raise money for youth mental health - via alustforlife.com - through his cycling and other sports.
This included working with former rugby player and Blizzards frontman Bressie, with whom he completed The Rising last year; kayaking down the Shannon before cycling to Carrauntoohil in Co Kerry and climbing the mountain. They raised €200,000.
Blake's next challenge is the Venice 70.3 Ironman next month and he has already completed five full Ironman distance events and over 20 half Ironmans.
A former goalkeeper with Shamrock Rovers, Blake got into triathlon, and raising money for mental health services, when he experienced some mental health issues of his own around seven years ago.
Now living part-time in Amsterdam - commuting between Dublin and the Dutch city - he works there is a project manager for Structure Tone.
