Greg Swinand is a man who can dig deep and really bury himself. His new Irish elite record at the age of 49 years and his tight win over Alan Bingham at the Masters nationals, above, were secured by class, fantastic training and embracing pain (Photo: Sean Rowe)
By Brian Canty
Greg Swinand touched down at his home in Wicklow yesterday after an arduous 24-hour journey back from Denver where he set new Irish elite and masters hour records - a staggering 46.860 kilometres.
The 49-year old was shattered from the effort but also overwhelmingly satisfied that a three-year process produced the result he went looking for.
In the end, he put a not insignificant 694 metres into Tommy Evans’ 17-year benchmark of 46.166km.
But when one considers how good the Rás winner and international rider Evans was when he set his record - and the fact he was far younger that Swinand - the quality of the new record holder's performance is put into perspective.
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Three years ago, Swinand put the wheels in motion for the attempt when he began quizzing then UCI commissaire Jack Watson on what he needed to do to make it happen.
“I definitely am really satisfied because of the steps that were taken,” said the new record-holder of the long process leading up to his hour ride.
“I started asking people about this three years ago but there were loads of steps and setbacks along the way.
“I started gearing my training towards it on the track bike a year ago. I’ve had a few sicknesses and illnesses along the way.
"There was the problem of the track and the construction of the roof (in Colorado Springs) so trying to maintain mental focus through it all... it was an achievement physically, but also logistically,” he added.
Indeed, Swinand had an army of people around him, pulling for him in any way they could.
He had sponsors in Redwood Designs, Usher Insulations, Neenan Travel, Cigala Cycling and Abundant Partners.
He committed to doing the effort for the charities Medecins Sans Frontiers and the Irish Cancer Society and he enlisted the services of Matteo Cigala, his 23-year old Italian teammate now based in Ireland.
It may be Swinand who has the record, but Matteo Cigala’s fingerprints are all over it. The Italian is now emerging as a coach of real substance despite his youth, at just 23 years (Photo: Cigala Coaching)
“It was a bit of a roller coaster leading up to the effort in the sense that I was up and I was down,” continued Swinand of the last week.
“I’d been to altitude but not in the last 20 years and when I first came to Boulder a couple of weeks ago I was feeling good, then when I went training in Aspen I wasn’t," he said of the increased altitude and accumulated fatigue.
“But I started feeling stronger and stronger.”
He got to the track a week ago today and began to calculate how fast and how quick his laps of the 333-metre track needed to be.
“On the Friday I was feeling better and we were doing some laps. Saturday was complete rest; I just put on the best tubulars and got everything super-duper ready for the effort.
“On the Sunday I did two 9-minute efforts and that day I was absolutely flying.
“There were a few lads training behind the blue line behind the derny, they were doing 20-lap efforts with sprints but I was passing them out, just riding my laps.
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“I was doing about 48k and at that point I was very confident but it’s a completely unknown quantity, you never really get on a track and go that deep for that long.”
Indeed, the day itself brought a mix of trepidation and excitement.
A huge time and financial investment came down to one hour of pain but he sensed, at the midpoint, he was onto it.
“With 30 minutes to go I was confident I could break it, with 20 minutes to go I was confident.
"But with 15 to go I did three faster laps than what I’d done previously and then I tried to lift it after three laps but I couldn’t.
“It just got more painful but one of the things I’m most pleased about is I had a plan and we stuck to it.
“Everyone said ‘don’t go out too fast’ and from speaking to guys they say if you have anything left you haven’t gone hard enough but if you go too hard your lap times start to fall but my pacing went exactly as planned.
“It was very close to dead on but the last 10 laps I could barely hold the pace, I could barely stand at the end.”
The moment they knew the record was broken...
Swinand was lap-splitting around 25-26 seconds the entire way, with Matteo giving him his times trackside.
It all came down to the wire, but Swinand knew when he passed the benchmark he’d done enough – and he squeezed out what was left to make sure the record will not be broken for a while yet.
“It was pretty blank, those last couple of laps. I did pretty good in holding the black line but the last 5-10 laps I went up towards the red line.
“I was dying, I was getting dizzy, my hands were numb. I was trying to hold form and the line and all that sort of thing but found it hard.”
He had to be helped from his bike afterwards by Cigala Matteo and the two shared a great moment inside the near-empty arena.
“We had fun, we said our congratulations and we had a takeaway to celebrate back with our host family afterwards.
“Then we had to drive back to Denver airport that night, dropped off the car and it midnight before we got to bed.”
It was an equally fine achievement for rider and coach Cigala and his input wasn’t lost on the new record holder.
“He is only 23 years old but he has huge enthusiasm and knowledge for cycling and it’s contagious.
“He did anything I asked of him; he carried the bike, cleaned it, he’d do anything and just the effort of constantly working on the speed and the lap times with me was incredible.
“You need someone there along the whole way and it was a massive effort from him. I paid some of his way but he paid the rest.
"There’s no way I could have paid him what he was worth, but he did it himself through his passion for cycling and of course the charities and sponsors.”
Swinand now plans to take a rest, unpack his bike at the weekend and reflect on an amazing season.
The 2016 campaign has seen him rack up the masters road race nationals, deliver a “personally superlative” performance at TT nationals and set a new PB at Sundrvive for the individual pursuit en route to the gold medal there.
He also set a new paced hour record behind the derny in September and now his hour record. It will be hard for him to top this year.
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