"I wasn't enjoying the bike, I was cracked with cycling last year. So I'm glad to be home"

Anthony Walsh took 2nd place today; glad to be back home, he is looking to build towards goals in the months ahead (Photo: Darragh McManamon)

Like the winner of today’s Mick Lally Memorial race Philip Lavery, runner-up Anthony Walsh had called time on his racing career during the winter only to change his mind and opt to race again this season.

The UCD CC man has been plagued with a number of crashes and suffered multiple breaks over the past couple of seasons when riding in France, the US and Canada.

However, having relocated from Canada in recent months back his home in Clontarf, north Dublin, the 30-year-old barrister seems happier in his skin.

Among the breakaway in the A1-A2 race today, Walsh was one of the main animators of the event along with Lavery. However, when the really hard attacking began at the start of the last lap it was Lavery who took flight and time trialled to victory.

“I thought I could let him get 30 seconds and I could go across it because I’d have a team mate sitting on having a free ride,” he said, referring to fellow UCD rider Sean McKenna also in the escape.

“(Lavery) got about 25 to 30 seconds. I tried to go across and I closed the first 15 seconds or so but I couldn’t get the last 10. So for almost all of the last lap we were 10 seconds apart.”

Despite having lost out on victory today, he said he was glad to be home; competing again and most of all having fun on his bike once more.

“I’m enjoying it a lot more. I hung up the wheels for September, I was cracked with cycling. It just wasn’t what I wanted to do. It wasn’t the dream I had pictured.

“I was never really in it to make a career, it was more of a life experience. I was sitting on buses (travelling to races in the US) and thinking to myself, ‘I’m not enjoying the bike any more’.

“The fun was gone out of it. I started because it was fun and because I love riding my bike; even going for coffee rides with friends. So I coached from Canada and I got out on a couple of rides in November. And at that stage I was decided I wasn’t going to race this season; that I wasn’t getting the enjoyment out of it.

“But I’m hooked again now after a couple of rides and I’m back into it. I had a steady enough winter, nothing crazy, just a lot of coffee rides. So I'm trying to build up now towards Rás Mumhan.”

Having raced in France a couple of seasons ago and in the US and Canada last year, he says his goals are different now.

“We have a good UCD team; there are a couple of very good young lads,” he says of the tight knit club he has happily returned to.

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“Sean McKenna is only 19; he’s a very good rider and if I could pass anything on to him that I've learned racing in France or the US then that’s great. And we’ve riders like Eoin Morton and Colm Cassidy and others.

“I think we’re a solid unit. We’re all friends, we all hang out together, go drinking together and train together. So it’s a good group of mates and we just happen to be pretty decent at riding our bikes. We’re going to have a good time this season, have a laugh, and win some bike races if we can.”

While no longer giving the bike his full attention, he feels he can be in the hunt for big wins this year.

“I’m a big fan of cycling and a big fan of the history of Irish cycling. There are some big races I would love to get my name on; the Des Hanlon, the Shay Elliott. It would be amazing to win one of those, though you need a lot of things to go your way.

“I think one of us on the team will be there of thereabouts and then after that hopefully we can close it out some days.”

While he may race abroad on occasion, being a full time bike rider in Europe or the US is a closed part of his life now.

“I’ve put that chapter to rest now. I still have very good relations with the team I was in a few seasons ago in France. I might go and guest ride a few races with them after the Rás but it’s just for fun; there’s not career-building or anything like that.

A barrister by profession, he will mix work and the bike from now on.

“I’m doing some legal consultancy at the moment and I’m also doing some coaching. So between that and the bike I’m kept busy.”