At 6' 6", Bressie knows he is never going to be a mountain goat, but with plenty of cycling and IronMan goals ahead he's loving the bike game (Photo: Stephen McCarthy - Sportsfile)
By Gerard Cromwell
Probably best known for his current role as a judge on TV show The Voice, singer songwriter ‘Bressie’ was yesterday announced as ambassador for the An Post Tour of Sligo on May 4th.
He revealed he will be using the 160km event as preparation for an attack on the St Polston IronMan in Austria a fortnight later.
No stranger to cycling, Bressie completed the two-week Cycle For Suicide, the Sean Kelly Tour of Waterford and the Tour de Force last year and admits he has quickly come to love the sport.
“The main reason I got into this was for my mental health,” said the Mullingar native.
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“It’s something I’ve not hidden from and something that’s massively positively promoted now. To do stuff in groups really helps; you have that sort of team vibe.
“On the bike, when you get fatigued I find people get very emotional and open up and it’s a great place to be for people who maybe have something on their shoulders or want to get something off their chest.
“I’ve found that I’ve been on cycles where people have just turned to me, people who I’ve never met before, and just started talking to me. I was like Doctor Phil at the end of the Cycle For Suicide. But that’s a very positive thing and something I’m very happy with in cycling.”
Bressie sounds like he's getting into cycling in a big way despite his rugby background and TV career (Photo: Stephen McCarthy - Sportsfile)
Having won a Leinster U21 Championship with Westmeath, Bressie also played professional rugby with Leinster and clearly still has a very competitive side, hence his IronMan challenge.
“That competitive streak is either in you or it’s not,” he says.
“It’s definitely in me and it doesn’t go away, ever. I did a few triathlons in the last year and a half or so and I’ve always been, ‘okay what’s the hardest triathlon you can do? An IronMan? Okay, I’ll do that!’
“But I got into cycling in a big way from doing triathlons. Of the three disciplines, it’s the one I definitely favour the most, the one I can actually make up the most time on.
“It’s definitely the bit where... you’re out of the water, that’s the bit that everybody hates out of the way, and then I’m onto my favourite part, the bike.”
At six-feet-six and built like the proverbial masonry lavatory, Bressie may look more like German sprinter Andre Greipel than Tour de France winner Chris Froome but says he can get by when the road rises skywards.
“The one thing I will say to anyone thinking about getting into cycling is that probably the best money you’ll spend is getting the right bike fit, because when you start getting into it and doing longer spins, that’s when the injuries will come if you’re not on a bike that suits you.
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“I have to be careful with my size and height that I’m on a bike that fits me. I did a 100km spin on a smaller bike once early on and got a bit of a knee injury out of it, which just proves that.
“I think the one thing you start realising quickly about cycling is what you’re good at and what you’re not good at... where you’re strengths lie.
“The hills were something I hated at the start but something I realised that you just have to embrace. I wouldn’t be a climber now, but it’s not like they bother me. They don’t really take too much out of me.
“I’m just not very quick up them. I just sit into them and chill out, but I’m quite strong on the flat.”
Never one to do something by half measures, the former Blizzards front man even spent Christmas in Lanzarote this year, foregoing his turkey and ham to train in the sunshine in an effort to be ready when the IronMan challenge comes.
“I don’t see the point in doing something half hearted,” he says.
“It’s a commitment you’ve got to make to yourself in your own head. You go out there and you see what the professional cyclists and triathletes put into it. Obviously, I’m an amateur athlete and I’ll never be a professional one but you can approach it professionally.
“You can approach it the same way. I also suffered a lot with injury from rugby and running is a major contributing factor to my injuries. When I got my program for the IronMan, I said ‘well there’s too much running in that’.
“I just have to accept I’ll never be a strong runner but I can be a good cyclist... for the event I’m doing, and the distance I’m doing. I think I can do well, so I’m putting my resources into cycling.
“Cycling and sport is obviously not my job, but for me it’s massively important to my job. It helps me stay fresh, keeps me fit and keeps my head fresh.
“I’m not an experienced enough cyclist to go out in any type of weather so I have to take what comes to me but my issue is scheduling really, fitting the training in between everything else that’s going on.”
With a successful career as a singer-songwriter, Bressie is also a judge on RTE's TV show "The Voice"
One of the ever growing number of 30-somethings transferring from other sports to cycling, Bressie admits he relishes the personal challenges of the sport and is looking forward to the An Post Tour of Sligo, where he will ride the 160km event.
“I think it’s the perfect sportive for me this year. It’s in May. It’s two weeks before the IronMan and it’s very hard. It’s my last major test, I suppose, where I can go at race pace.
“It’s perfect training for me and it’s obviously one of the best run events in the country. I think there’s been this huge cultural shift towards health and fitness in Ireland that I don’t think has been documented enough.
“I think at the core of that is cycling and triathlon. It’s something that has grown and grown.
“I’m not in it to worry about times or any of that but the buzz that you get when you finish an event like that is probably the closest I’ve got to the buzz of playing rugby or gaelic.
“And to be honest, when you finish an event like that, you know it was you and no one else that did it. It was all you. It was your strength, your grit and determination to do it.
“You get that with rugby and gaelic but obviously there’s 15 other people with you. You get it from performing on stage, but it’s a different type of buzz. I think that, for me, the big thing with cycling is that it really is you against yourself.
“There’s a huge sense of pride in finishing something like that. But I’m quite scientific with it. I know what I’m capable of. I’m not going to try and be a hero.”
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