By Shane Stokes
In 1981 history was made in the Phoenix Park when Jamie McGahan sealed overall victory in the Tirolia Rás Tailteann. The Scotland team rider had made his big push for general classification success by winning stage eight to Trim, beating Paul Mahon by two seconds and the next riders by almost three minutes.
With just two days remaining, that put McGahan in a very strong position for the final general classification. And while he got his pacing wrong in the penultimate day time trial and was also outside the top six on the final stage to the Phoenix Park, he finished the race twelve seconds clear of runner-up Aidan McKeown (Ireland) and a minute in front of his Scotland teammate Norman Lindsay.
It was a notable victory, both in and of itself and also in terms of the history of the race. It was the first time a rider from Great Britain had won the Rás, ending a near-30 year wait for the competitors from that island.
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In all McGahan would ride the race seven times, and went close to victory again. He placed second the following year, was third in 1983 and was fifth twelve months later. “It was good while it lasted,” he said, smiling.
The affable Scot was speaking to Sticky Bottle at the end of the national women’s road race championships in Co. Wicklow at the start of the month. He was in good form, glad to be back at an Irish race, and enjoying catching up with people he knows.
But he had an additional reason to be there, something which saw him in a celebratory mood at the end of that event. He had just seen Imogen Cotter take gold in the women’s road race, outsprinting breakaway companions Megan Armitage (Team Rupelcleaning - Champion Lubricants) and Linda Kelly (Barrow Wheelers). McGahan had a personal interest, given that he is married to Cotter’s aunt Bríd.
He has also played an role in the shaping of her career, as Cotter explained. “When I started cycling back in 2017, I remember him bringing me out on a bike ride to kind of teach me how to cycle,” she told Stickybottle. “I just had no idea what I was doing.
“He was only saying that to me walking into the podium now. He was like, ‘what a journey it’s been.’”
There is truth in that. “When I did my first Rás (na mBán) back in 2017, I was just so clueless,” she continued. “I cried every day during it, and Jamie was crying for me too, because I was out the back every single day. I was dropped within the first five kilometres.
“I just thought to myself, ‘just keep going…’ And I really…I just didn’t give up.”
Cotter became emotional in talking, and thinking, about that race and her progress since then. Back in 2018 she told Stickybottle that the previous year’s Rás na mBán had been her first-ever road race. She admitted to getting a battering; she finished almost one and a half hours behind in the general classification, “feeling totally disheartened.”
One year later she had closed the gap considerably. She finished 10 minutes and 58 seconds back in that edition, with three and half minutes of that deficit down to crashing. “I know I have a lot more in me,” she said then.
That assessment was completely correct, as her victory in this year’s national championships shows.
Like road race runner-up Megan Armitage, Cotter is a former runner who drifted into cycling because of an injury. Her decision to swap the athletics footwear for cycling shoes was made easier by the fact that McGahan’s success had influenced her own father Fintan and her uncle Ronan to take up the sport. Indeed the latter would show serious commitment, going on to ride the Rás Tailteann twice.
There was a family history there, but still things didn’t come easy. “Imogen rode the first Rás (na mBan) and it was really, really hard. I could have cried for her,” McGahan says. “The weather was terrible. She got hammered most days. And I just thought, ‘oh, this is….it is cruel at that point.’ People, when they start off at that level, don’t see themselves progressing, you know. And to think that she’s come that far, it’s just absolutely fantastic. I am so proud of her.”
When told by Stickybottle that Cotter had made clear her appreciation for his help in those early races, he was glad to have been able to do so.
“I like to think I encouraged her. It is hard to know what to say when people are getting such a hammering. Because it comes as quite a shock, you know, to go in at that level and to see how far you have to go.
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“I like to think I’ve encouraged in some way. But she is her own woman and she’s very independent. I think she would need to be, given some of the difficulties she’s had.
“She started off in the track team, that didn’t go as well as it might have done. But she kept at it and things have paid dividends for her."
It’s interesting to hear McGahan talk about toughness. That was an attribute he was well known for and while he is related to Cotter by marriage rather than blood, she seems to have picked up on it too.
She has had a good example to study. His Rás victory plus his success in other years relied on grit and determination, not least because he was up against strong competitors and also a bit of an alliance against foreign riders.
“It was hard,” he said, when asked to reflect on his experience in that race. “There were a lot of good riders around at that time. You had the likes of John Mangan, Billy Kerr, Philip Cassidy, although Stephen Roche had moved on, he had turned professional at that point.
“It was always hard to win a race in Ireland, especially towards the end of the race when the winners or the potential winners were starting to become obvious. You found yourself up against some of the county teams, who would combine a little bit. Not in a big way, but in a big enough way that it would be a threat to you at that point in the race.”
Still, it could have been worse. “I had a little bit of luck as well, in that nobody cut me up, nobody felt bad about an outsider winning it. A person from the UK hadn’t won it at that point, I was the first.”
That said, as Stickybottle pointed out to him, the shared Celtic heritage means that Scots are perceived as closer to the Irish than the English are. He agrees. “You know the book by Tom Daly? There was a bit in it saying that I had won the Rás, but ‘as I was from Scotland that it wasn’t such a bad thing. Thank God it wasn’t an Englishman who had won it.’
“But I’ve got great memories of it. The Rás was such a unique race, and it’s really made racing in this country what it is. And an awful lot of good riders have done well out of it and progressed on to even greater things.
“I’ve also got great memories of this country. I have always loved coming to Ireland. I obviously love the banter that goes with the racing. It is fantastic.”
McGahan savours the past but is also very interested in the future, namely what happens next in his niece’s career.
She has been based in Belgium of late, racing with the Keukens Redant squad, although she told Stickybottle after the road race championships that she had just moved back to Ireland. She wasn’t quite clear on her full plans for 2021, but will remain part of Movistar’s eRacing team. She also recently did a long-distance event with the road squad, potentially opening the door for further participations like that next season.
McGahan said he was unsure of her plans beyond the Movistar team involvement, but said that he believe the national championships win would be a turning point for her.
“As people get older, as well, they always has half an eye on a career,” he said, referring to work away from sport. “I hope she keeps it going as long as she can and continues to do well. I’d like to see her going to the world championships and the Olympics as well.”
However he’s not convinced that Cycling Ireland’s focus will necessarily align with that of Cotter, in terms of the disciplines that are most supported.
“My understanding that the powers that be seem to be focusing on the track. That’s a bit of a shame really, since road racing—especially with the Rás and the women’s Rás as well, and with the success of Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche, Dan Martin and Nicolas Roche—has played such a significant part in the development of Irish cycling. I’d like to see them pay more attention to that.”
His hopes are that things might change in the future, particularly as events such as the first-ever women’s Paris-Roubaix and an eight-day Tour de France Femmes are now on the international calendar. Women’s teams are expanding and enjoying higher budgets, and are also getting a lot more media attention.
“I’ve personally really enjoyed watching the women race,” he said. “I always feel sorry for them as well when the conditions are really bad. But they are great to watch. Women really are tough. I guess that is why they were who were picked to have the babies,” he said, laughing. “You couldn’t have asked us to do it!”
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