Former professional road rider David O’Loughlin, who represented Ireland at the World Championships seven times, has said the return of Rás Tailteann and the growth of the Cycling Ireland National Road Series are vital for the progression of the next generation of Irish riders.
“When you’re a young rider you’re ambitious and you gain confidence from these races,” O’Loughlin told stickybottle. “The national series we had back when I was starting out had these wiser, more experienced, guys like Phil Cassidy, Tommy Evans, David McCann.
"They were a bit older than me, I looked up to them. You really gain confidence when you go up against riders like that and win some battles. And another day you learn quite a bit from your losses and you come back stronger.”
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O’Loughlin was speaking to stickybottle ahead of the inaugural Brian O’Loughlin Memorial race in Cong, Co Mayo, this Sunday. The race is in honour of O’Loughlin’s father, who sadly died just over two years ago, and is being run as ‘Round 4’ of the Cycling Ireland National Road Series. You can enter by following this link.
O’Loughlin said his parents were always his biggest supporters and when he looks back on his career now he has a full appreciation of the sacrifices they made for him “bringing me all over the country every sudden morning for bike races”.
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Now aged 44 years and a father himself, O'Loughlin rode Rás Tailteann many times and won three stages in the event. He is a three-time elite Irish road race champion, two-time elite TT champion and won both the Archer GP and Lincoln GP in Britain. He is also a former track international and represented Ireland, in the individual pursuit, at the Beijing Olympics.
He believes having Rás Tailteann back on the road next month, after a three-year absence, was a welcome boost for Irish cycling, for both riders looking to progress to the high performance level of the sport and others who simply wanted to finish the race as a cycling career goal.
“I think it's very important that we have a National Road Series and they are key events in the build up to a national tour like the Rás, where where you can race against the best in the country and some of the foreign teams," he said
“You get a more realistic race; you find out where you truly are and you get a proper race with the better quality riders. All those events – the series, the Rás and races like the Tour of Ulster and Rás Mumhan; they will bring you on. The racing might be tougher and you might get less results but, ultimately, they are a lot more important than other races.”
O'Loughlin said the course for this Sunday's races had a very good road surface and he expected fast racing on a course without any major climbs.
He believed the races would not blow to the pieces early. Instead, he expected a wearing down process with the challenge really kicking in towards the end. The men’s event is 140km and the women’s race is 112km, both starting at 12 noon.
