Eoghan Clifford drives the escape in Rio. His international career was short but incredibly successful. However, he has now called time on that part of his life (Photo: Sportsfile)
Eoghan Clifford ends international cycling career
Having proven so successful for Ireland during what was a relatively short paracycling career, Eoghan Clifford has announced his retirement.
He will no longer compete internationally or ride paracycling events. But he will stay in cycling; a sport he says he loves.
Clifford, a father of two and academic based in NUI Galway, has a staggering palmares.
He is the reigning Paralympic TT champion and also took four world titles and six World Cup golds.
Despite that dizzying level of success, he only made his international debut in 2014.
And when he began, he did so with a bang; winning two world titles in his debut for Ireland at the Paracycling World Road Championships in Greenville in the United States.
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Diagnosed with a degenerative muscle disease called Charcot-Marie-Tooth; it hasn’t held him back in his cycling or any other area of life.
Eoghan Clifford crowned treble world champion; on the podium after the men’s scratch race at the UCI Paracycling Track World Championships in Apeldoorn, Netherlands, in 2015. He was adding track gold to the two road race titles in he took in the US the previous year.
On his way to winning the men's C3 Time Trial at the UCI Para-Cycling Road World Championships 2015.
But with young children and a successful career away from cycling, he felt it was now the right time to step aside.
“I’m still going to stay involved with local club stuff,” said the Galway Bay Cycling Club man.
“But I’m retiring from National and Paralympic racing. It’d be hard for me to lose too much fitness, and it wouldn’t be good for me.
“I want to continue to stay on the bike and train as much as I have time for, and stay in good shape.
“I’ll stay in the community, but the time and commitment of racing is too much at the moment.
“I used to cycle as a kid a lot, and I first started racing when I was 17 or 18,” he said.
“I was involved in other sports like triathlon and rowing, but cycling was the one that I enjoyed most.
“I remember my first race was in Navan. I was competing in the A1-A2 race and finished pretty well in the bunch and was surprised.
“It took off a bit from there. That was 18 years ago! I went on to get two good wins in the Connacht Championships with solo wins.
“I can’t sprint out of a bag, so that was my trademark move,” he added, though his biggest win was against the watch.
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“One of my favourite moments was in the Time Trial at the Paralympic Games in Rio,” he explained of that victory.
“I knew after five minutes that I would win, it was one of those days. The win in the scratch race at the World Championships in Apeldoorn was another, I was on a good day.
“The double win at the World Championships in Greenville was a really big one too, because it was my first World Championship, and first titles. All the medals were special though.”
The biggest moment in a big, big career; Rio gold medal time. Clifford claimed victory in the TT.
He paid tribute to Cycling Ireland, particularly coach Neil Delahaye, for the commitment to excellence in the paracycling camp.
Ultimately, though, there was a huge time commitment involved for the riders. And that was a factor in his decision to stop now.
“Focusing on Rio involved a lot of travel to both training and competition on the track and the road,” he said.
“There was a lot of training and a lot of travel, and my biggest battle was time juggling.
“And now I have two children under three, I want to spend more time with my family.
“Before Rio I had a lot of back problems, and some days I couldn’t lift my little daughter.
“But that has eased off quite a bit, and it’s great having more time with my family.
“I’ll miss racing, there’s no question about that. But I won’t miss structured training!
“I love going off and hammering myself in my own way. There’s nothing like the buzz of racing.
“I could never perform as much in training as I do in racing, but I don’t miss it.”
However, while he won’t be pinning on numbers again, his involvement with competitive cycling continues in other guises.
As a senior lecturer in civil engineering he is continuing research projects for the Irish cycling team.
“I am lucky that I get to marry my two interests, cycling and work,” he said of using his skills to help others perform.
“Last week I was helping out with some wind tunnel testing with Cycling Ireland. It’s great to get to remain involved with what’s going on at international level through work.”
He is also a board member at Paralympics Ireland where he is a member of the athletes’ commission.
“Hopefully I can act as a good athlete’s voice. It is a positive group, and I’m looking forward to that – it will be a new challenge. It’s a good challenge.”
He said he owned thanks to his family and friends for all the support they had offered.
As well as Cycling Ireland, he was also grateful to Sport Ireland, Paralympics Ireland and NUI Galway as well as Galway Bay CC.
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