One of Ireland's best domestically based riders for the past decade, Sean Lacey is the subject of a new radio documentary by Spin South West, which has been produced with funding from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (Photo: www.blackumbrella.ie)
Here's a great new radio documentary that runs to 30 minutes and profiles one of the best riders on the domestic scene, Sean Lacey.
Having ridden for Team Aquablue this year, Tralee man Lacey has won most of the biggest races on the home scene – including Kerry Group Rás Mumhan – and has done so while working full time as a college lecturer.
As well as interviewing the man himself at length for this piece, Spin South West FM also spoke to a number of people who know him well including team mate and friend Tim Barry and well known coaching figure Paddy Doran.
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This documentary follows Lacey’s career from his very first race - the U14 event at the Gene Moriarty Memorial - and profiles the cycling exploits of his family, spearheaded by his father Martin and his uncles.
“The other riders were all well used to racing but I hadn’t a clue; finishing it was the big thing,” Lacey says of that first youth event in Kerry.
And while he claims he was “not a bigger winner of races” in his early days and his father was keen to hold him back initially, spins with Tralee BC and some good results progressed to training with Paddy Doran and beginning to pick off bigger victories.
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“He showed me how to peak for a race and I would still bounce ideas off him,” he says of Doran.
Lacey quickly emerged as a rider with great discipline; at first combining his studies with racing and then his work life with the bike. He got his first international caps as a second year junior, representing Ireland no fewer than four times that season.
He says he was very disappointed not to gain selection for the U23 World Championships in both 2000 and 2004.
“I should have been on (the teams) and I wasn’t on them. I’d say 2000 was probably the most disappointing because I was young, I was only 18. I would have been very upset after it but it would have made me strong. I would have been saying ‘look, I don’t need to be looking for Irish teams; I can win races and do well by myself'.”
However, he sounds happy with his international career to date and made it as far as the 10-day Tour of Langkawi with the Irish team in 2005, not to mention riding the Tour of Turkey and Tour of Serbia.
Click the link below to access the documentary, it’s well worth a listen.
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