Alan McCormack winning the Fitchburg Longsjo Classic in the US in 1982, just a few years after riding the Vuelta aged just 21 years; still an Irish record (Photo with thanks to FlandriaCafe.com)
By Graham Healy
Thirty six years ago, a Dubliner achieved a record which still stands today; becoming the youngest Irishman to complete a Grand Tour.
The 1978 Vuelta would turn out to be the one and only appearance at one of the big three-week races for Alan McCormack, as soon afterwards his cycling career would take a different direction.
McCormack was born into cycling. His father JJ was a former Irish international and founder of the Junior Tour. Alan’s younger brother Paul would also go on to gain considerable success, including winning the Rás twice.
The elder brother showed great promise as a teenager winning amongst other races, the National Championships, the Shay Elliott Memorial and stages of the Tour of Ireland. Seán Kelly would even later acknowledge; “Alan had more talent than I did.”
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In 1977, he signed for the Carlton-Weinmann team in the UK where he raced alongside Mick Bennett who would be instrumental in bringing the Tour de France to Ireland. The following year, McCormack signed for the Old Lords-Splendor team in Belgium.
There he would race alongside the likes of Ferdinand Bracke who had previously won the Tour of Spain and Roger Swerts who had won numerous Grand Tour stages. They were both very experienced, but were coming towards the end of their careers.
A clip from Winning magazine in the late 1980s when McCormack was very popular both on and off the bike.
McCormack was selected to take part in some of the biggest races on the calendar, and in April he was named on the Vuelta team.
McCormack had a great start to the race; finishing in 15th place in the prologue in Gijón, some 45 seconds behind Bernard Hinault.
However, on the 94 km second stage to Cangas de Onis, he struggled as he came in over nine minutes down on stage winner Enrique Cima. He slipped to 80th overall, though the third stage to León went really well for the Irishman.
Ferdi van den Haute won the day to take over the race lead, whilst McCormack finished just 1:22 down in a much reduced peloton of just 34 riders, including Hinault and former Tour de France winner Luis Ocaña.
This moved him back up to 56th overall. It was arguably his most impressive performance in the race.
As others dropped out, McCormack, or ‘the Belgian Gormac’ as he was described in one Spanish report, showed real grit by hanging in there.
On the 16th stage to Santuario de la Bien Aparecida, for example, he finished 5th last, over 15 minutes down on stage winner Vicente Belda.
Alan leads brother Paul on the attack on the US pro circuit at Coors Whaling City in 1987 - they both made a big impact on the US scene.
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He wasn’t alone in his suffering though, as the entire Splendor team were struggling, sitting in last place in the team competition.
The following stage to Bilbao was another tough day, with four men being eliminated for being outside the time limit.
McCormack rode strongly that day and was never really in danger. He made it to the finish of the race in San Sebastián a few days later.
However, those last few days were far from straightforward. The Basque separatist group ETA were very active at the time, with numerous kidnappings and killings having taken place in the previous year.
On the penultimate stage, the riders faced road closures with nails and stones being placed on the road. The cyclists had to be bussed closer to the finish and only raced the last section of the stage.
The final leg consisted of a time trial to San Sebastián. The results had to be annulled as some of the cyclists had various objects thrown at them in a form of protest.
McCormack made it through unscathed to finish 55th out of 64 finishers, 1 hour and forty four minutes behind Hinault, who won his first Grand Tour. However, the effort of the Vuelta and the arduous race schedule took its toll on the 21 year-old.
Back in the day; 1979 Health Race Rás Tailteann leader Stephen Roche and ICF team mate and climbers’ classification leader Alan McCormack up the road (Photo with thanks to Eddie Dawson)
After just one season on the continent, McCormack decided to return home, as he didn’t feel that the style of racing and the lifestyle that went with it suited him.
“I felt I was racing eight days a week, and it just burnt me up completely. I was never a big tough guy like Kelly,” he said after his stint with the Belgian team.
McCormack did return to professional cycling though, albeit taking a different route to those who had gone before him.
He moved to the US, where the racing calendar consisted of a lot more criteriums than there were in Europe.
He enjoyed quite a lot of success racing for teams such as Killian’s Irish Red and Coors Light, despite the style of racing and the cycling culture being considerably different to what McCormack would have been used to in Europe.
He notched up numerous wins including a number of stages of the top American stage race, the Coors Classic.
McCormack made occasional trips back to Europe to race, and was a member of the Irish team who helped Roche to win the World Championships in 1987. He continued racing until 1995 and still lives in the US.
His record as youngest Irishman to complete a Grand Tour is one that he will keep for the foreseeable future.
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