A former top rider in his day, and a coach to generations of Irish cyclists since he stopped racing himself, Paddy Doran has sadly died in his native Dublin.
Paddy was a double stage winner at the Tour of Ireland
and sadly passed away earlier today having suddenly fallen ill.
He had remained very active in life, and on the Irish road cycling scene, right up to the time of his death and his sudden passing has come as a shock.
Paddy took one of his Tour of Ireland stage wins in 1973 when a trailblazing US 'Raleigh' team came to the race, adding no shortage of glamour. On the day he won, Paddy got up the road in a three-man group with compatriot Harry Dawson and one of the visiting Americans; Bill Humphreys.
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There's some great footage of that race in the video below and you can view Paddy's winning ride from the breakaway 17:15 into the video. There's also a fantastic voice-over from Humphreys in the video telling the story of how Doran had beaten him that day - he tells it very well.
Paddy, who was in his 70s, dedicated much of his life to cycling and when he retired from his job at An Post some years ago he remained embedded in the Irish cycling scene.
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In the past he held key coaching, team management and selector positions working with national road teams for Cycling Ireland and the Irish Cycling Federation before it.
Back in the year 2000 Paddy was named ‘Tutor of the Year’ at the National Coaching and Training Centre awards in Limerick. The award was recognition for his efforts in his capacity as chairman of Irish Cycling Federation's coaching committee.
As well as trying to assist other coaches, especially those who were much younger than him and keen to learn, Paddy coached some of our best riders to Olympic and WorldTour level. He also had a lot of time for beginners and once you wanted to ride your bike, that was good enough for Paddy.
He produced several coaching manuals, from the 1980s right up to the present day, and also wrote well-received coaching pieces in recent years for stickybottle.
On a personal level Paddy was great company, a fantastic conversationalist and never forgot the fun in cycling - the craic was always very good when you were in his company.
Everyone at stickybottle extends our sympathies to Paddy’s
family at this very sad time.
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