Fresh from two wins last weekend, Paidi O’Brien talks to Brian Canty about his purple patch of form, going back to college, his days on the Continent and life after the An Post-Sean Kelly team.
Paidi O’Brien is as versatile as you like. He can climb, he can corner, he can get in the breaks and he can sprint - boy can he do that. But is there ever the feeling that his career is unfulfilled?
After all, here is a guy who came second in the Rás to Tony Martin by less than 20 seconds. Here is a rider who was three times runner-up in the national championships; one of those to Dan Martin who is currently in the midst of a his debut at the Tour de France.
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The pocket rocket, as he is affectionately known, is genuinely one of the nicest guys you could hope to meet. And before I ever cycled ‘properly’, I was thrust into reporting on races.
One such occasion was after an horrific stage of the Rás over the steepest climbs in Kerry in 2008 into a finish in Skibbereen. O’Brien’s An Post-Sean Kelly team-mate at the time, Davy O’Loughlin had been away in a break all day with Simon Richardson. He looked destined to beat him in a sprint. But he suffered a puncture at exactly the wrong time (some 5km from home) and Richardson won easily.
O’Loughlin was next over the line and O’Brien wasn’t too far behind in the bunch.
I wanted to speak to him afterwards because the crowds that came out were all roaring his name and I wanted to know why. I went about tracking him down but couldn’t find him in the madness after the finish.
So I headed for home and to my astonishment, there he was, riding to Rosscarbery to cool down. I stayed about 150 metres back in the car and was amazed at the speed he and his team mates were doing for their cool down.
Later, Kurt Bogaerts was in the lobby of the hotel where the team were staying and told me where I’d find O’Brien. So I door-stepped a man who had just ridden himself to the limit of his ability and asked him some stupid questions like ‘how are your legs’ and ‘do you think you can win tomorrow’.
But every answer was articulate and planned and well delivered. I came away thinking I was Paul Sherwin.
The next time I spoke to him was after that glorious Tour of Ireland - Lacey knows the one, so too do Roger Aiken, Mick Concannon Jnr and Paul Griffin. They rode for the national team that year and I remember seeing Mick Concannon actually smiling as he came up Patrick’s Hill for the third time, almost at a standstill because he couldn't believe the support he was getting from strangers.
But O’Brien too drew enormous vocal support from the throngs that swelled the hill on that blistering hot day. Frantisek Rabon was strong, so too was Marco Pinotti and the South Australian team. But each time the An Post guys came around the last bend and faced onto Patrick’s Hill, necks craned to see was it O’Brien at the front and everyone there urged him up the hill. He duly obliged each time.
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I chased him afterwards and he was buzzing, adrenaline coursing through his body no doubt. Several people came by him and said 'well done' and he met each with casual modesty and a wave.
That modesty was there again when I spoke to him after his win last Sunday in the Midleton GP, now riding for Dan Morrissey-Speedy Spokes.
I put it to him that he ridden three laps on his own, who does that?
His response was to credit Robin Kelly for a super ride in beating his team mate Sean Lacey while he also credited Eddie Barry for another brave effort.
But does he have regrets, now that he is an amateur?
“No, no I really enjoyed my time in Belgium and I gave it a good go when I was there. I gave it 100 per cent; that’s the way the ball hopped for me but I’m happy where I am,” comes the reply.
You can tell he’s enjoying the racing, because he finds it easier than when it was his job. A means to an end. Pressure. Satisfy sponsor or risk being dropped.
“I am enjoying it alright,” he offers.
“There’s a lot of good riders out there and the standard is high. The year before last was a hard year because I was injured and dropped from An Post and I didn’t like riding the bike so it’s nice to come back to the scene in Ireland now and I’m enjoying it. I’m not working for the summer because there’s very little out there at the moment. I’m riding the bike, not doing a fierce amount but more what I was doing during the college year.”
Criteriums are something many people feel O’Brien could make a lot of money from. With his aggressive style, excellent cornering and explosive speed, a career in the States was something he admits he’d like to have a cut off.
“I would have liked to have gone, back in the day. But when I got in with An Post, and things were going well…. I don’t know if I would go now, but I’d like to try it and see what it’s like. Some riders we don’t even know ride them, they just ride crits. I’d like to go and see what it’s like. But that was my career and I’ve no regrets.”
He still thinks of the An Post life he had in Belgium, and though he gave “100 per cent”, it just wasn’t to be.
“I’ve a good relationship with An Post and I was great friends with Kurt. Before there was the An Post team, I raced amateur with him in Belgium. Maximise was the name of the team, I think it was 04-05, before Murphy and Gunn here. Kurt was racing then and we got on great. That’s how I first got in touch with him and how I really got on the team. I still get an aul text now and then during Rás Mumhan and the Nationals.”
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