Ronan McLaughlin took his first win of 2014 in the PJ Logan Cup last weekend and also has big plans off the bike as he transitions from full time racing abroad. Seen here in cyclocross action in the colours of Dig Deep Coaching-Inspired Cycling during the winter (Photo: Gareth Gibbons)
By Brian Canty
Former An Post-Chainreaction rider, Ronan McLaughlin is spearheading a Donegal team for this year’s An Post Rás with the emphasis very much on developing riders.
The team will also be used to attract more and more youngsters into the sport in the county, with McLaughlin in the process of setting up a cycling academy for the growing number of underage riders taking to the sport in Donegal.
“I was asked to ride on a Donegal team in the Rás this year but I said if I was going to do it I wanted to do it my way,” he explains.
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“Now there’s an U12, U14 and U16 development academy being set up, a junior team who we hope will ride the Junior Tour and Rás Dun na nGall and a senior team doing the Tour of Ulster and the An Post Rás.
“It’s basically me giving back what I learned from the sport in the last six years; giving something to the kids in Donegal. And the aim is to have a Rás team made up of four 19 to 22 year olds and me in the future, but not this year because there just aren’t enough yet.
“Something like having a Rás team gives ambition to the underage guys. The academy won’t be a house or anything like that; more just training camps and workshops, led by me and the others in Dig Deep Coaching.”
McLaughlin is hoping the idea will push riders on to a higher level, meaning if they go abroad the step up to European racing will not take as long.
“We want to establish a clear pathway from underage to senior and beyond because every Irish guy who goes abroad takes two or three years to pick up what every European kid is brought up with.
“And we just don’t have it in Ireland and it’s costing everyone who goes abroad a year or more to get up to speed.
“So if I can teach what I learned in my time in Belgium and help the next generation coming through to skip that whole learning process and go straight into knowing how to race, knowing how to train and look after themselves, learning; then hopefully we can produce a few more Philip Deignans in a few years.”
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As well as his work with Dig Deep Coaching and progressing the Donegal development scheme, McLaughlin is also making the transition from riding for An Post-Chainreaction to being based in Ireland again by working for the major American custom sports clothing company Pactimo.
“It’s been great for me personally being able to stay involved in something I love doing. The appetite for cycling here has never been bigger and with the Giro coming in May, it’ll only increase.
“Our Rás team is a real mix of guys but they’re determined to do well. Connor McIlwaine is an Irish U23 international and is in Belgium this year.
“Rory Devlin and Mark Buchanan have both done the Rás a few times and have been up there in races this year already.”
He describes veteran Damian Lagan as “one of the hardest people I’ve ever met”, an apt comment on a man who finished stage 3 of the 2012 Rás despite breaking his collarbone that day.
Added to Lagan, Sean McFadden and Mark McClure and also in the mix to ride.
And with the expense that comes with putting a team in the An Post Rás, McLaughlin has reached out to businesses willing to come on board to sponsor the team.
“The team will be named after our principal sponsor, whoever that will be,” he said.
“And I think with the growing exposure the sport and the race is enjoying now, especially with the Giro coming just a few weeks before; it’s an opportune time for someone to come in and be our sponsor.”
Any interested parties can contact McLaughlin at [email protected]
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