Hard man, mountain man: Aged 41 years, cycling legend Padraig Marrey is about to become a father for the first time, but he has unfinished business with the Rás to deal with first. A great character and in many ways a pioneer, his attitude to a broad range of challenges is one you could really warm to. Pictured above at Kilbeg pier, with not a bike in sight.
By Gerard Cromwell
Having taken his first coaching course at the age of 14 years, Padraig Marrey became Cycling Connacht’s head coach six years later.
At 23 years old, he had set up an academy that transformed the province into a cycling stronghold, producing riders such as Mark Scanlon and David O’Loughlin; both of whom would go on to become top professionals.
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In 2004, the Balinrobe native became Ireland’s highest ranked cycling coach when he completed a three-month international coaching course at UCI headquarters in Switzerland and was made Irish national coach from 2003-2005.
“The course in Switzerland opened my eyes to what can be done with training,” says the Western Lakes veteran.
“The guy over us, Charlie Walsh, was revolutionary in Australia and coached everyone from Robbie McEwan to Stuart O’Grady. His resumé on the track and road is monstrous.
"He was very much into one-on-one training. He’d go out and train with the guys and advised us to do the same. When I came back, I ended up writing a lot of manuals for Cycling Ireland. I wanted to implement a lot of the stuff I’d learned over there.
"Cycling Ireland weren’t in the position they are in now but that course definitely kick-started the high performance end of things here.”
The advent of online training programs and coaches however has led to less contact with riders and has seen Marrey almost give up on coaching recently.
“I suppose the beauty with Mark Scanlon and Davy O’Loughlin and those guys was they used to go training with me, do motor paced training and that stuff," he said.
"It was very one-on-one, very close. I could always see what they were doing out on the bike. The big thing I see in cycling today is the lack of technique. It’s all gone power based and Training Peaks based programs nowadays.
"There’s nothing wrong with that, but it takes the fun out of it for me. I like seeing guys doing the efforts properly and being there to watch them.
“The only one I really work with this year is Charlie Prendergast and our own club lads. It’s grand giving someone a piece of paper but I don’t think it’s real anymore. You need to be looking over their files and need the infrastructure.
"I’ve done that, worn the t-shirt. I’ll still work with guys one-to-one, guys I can go out training with. But if they’re not within cycling distance I generally don’t go near it.”
While he may have cut down on his coaching clientele, Marrey is as busy as ever on and off the bike.
A former boxer, Marrey has recently taken to adventure racing and is one of the top exponents of the sport here.
One of the few who really enjoy every facet of the sport from track to road, cyclo-cross and mountain biking, he holds the record for Malin to Fair Head and Galway to Limerick. He has even taken up adventure racing in the past few years, winning the Gaelforce in 2010 and the All Ireland Adventure Race league in 2011.
“I’ve always done all the disciplines in cycling; I get stuck into them all. I had to stay away from adventure racing last year after I hurt my back doing downhill running a few weeks after the Rás. The injury meant I had to back off a bit, which probably explains why I didn’t go that well on the bike either.
"What I like about it is, there’s a bit of a strategy to it. You have to thoroughly investigate the course if you want to win those events. It usually starts off with a run, then a bike, a kayak, another run, a mountain run, another cycle and maybe some form of an obstacle course at the end.
"I used to go up a day or two before and check out the course to see what equipment I needed. It probably suited my makeup. I wouldn’t be a really fast runner but I was strong running uphill and had an aptitude to run downhill fast.
"I came down off Croagh Patrick in eight and a half minutes. I just run straight down, no brakes. That’s what gets me up in a lot of those races.”
With plans to ride his first European Mountain Bike Championships in Ballyhoura in June there’s no sign of stopping just yet for the 41 year-old postman.
Whether it's road racing, time trial, cyclo-cross or mountain biking, Marrey will have a go at anything and has won races in all of genres of the sport (Photo: Paweł Sadowski of www.shutterstills.com)
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“It’s a huge event for Ireland," he says of the Euros.
"To be part of that and ride it, it’ll be a thrill to finish it never mind get a result in it. I was told a while ago that this was my 27th year racing. I had no idea. I don’t believe I’m old. I still think I’m a kid. That’s probably part of it.
"I have to have some form of a challenge or a goal. If I don’t have that, I have no interest in training to keep fit. I have to train for something. Then there’s the fear of failure that makes you go that extra step.”
It’s that fear that has spurred him onto training even harder for a 12th and possibly final tilt at the An Post Rás next month with the Mayo Centra team.
“You can do all the local races and all the national races you like but none of them compare to the Ras,” he says adamantly.
“None of them come close. The one thing I learned from last year is forget about doing races and hoping they’ll get you ready for the Rás.
"Roger Aiken, Bryan McCrystal, all these guys proved that you have to train really specifically and that’s the route we’ve gone down this year. Last year we had four teams from the west. This year we will have two.
“The first year I rode it was 1993, the first year the pros rode. But the speeds are even higher now. The big fear for me now is the amount of crashes.
"Last year on the stage to Listowel, Peter Hawkins and Aaron Buggle came down on a big wide open stretch of road. You’re thinking ‘if they came down there what chance have I on a narrow winding road?’
“I can’t afford to crash and break a collarbone or a leg so to be on the safe side you either hang near the back, which leads to more crashes or else you ride out in the wind. But you need savage strength to do that, or you ride at the very front but you need a strong team to do that.
"This year I did a good bit of cyclo-cross and mountain biking to try and keep my skills as sharp as they can possibly be. Last Sunday I rode a mountain bike race instead of the road [Marrey spoke to stickybottle before riding Rás Mumhan at the weekend - Ed].
"The skill required is way different but when you go back on the road you can apply it and it makes you a way better rider.”
The men from the Mayo Centra team looked pretty wasted after the Rás 2012 stage into Budoran; Marrey is at the centre of the photo, wearing red gloves. The image shot by Oliver Whyte went viral when published on stickybottle.
With a couple of top 10s in stages under his belt, Marrey’s best day on the Rás came, ironically, when he slid across the line into Sligo in 1999, finishing seventh after crashing in the sprint and ending up wedged under the podium truck.
“A Dutch guy was away and there was a big Belgian going for second with Colm Bracken. He came out from the barriers and caught Colm’s wheel.
"I remember Colm’s bike hit the barrier on the left, was catapulted across the road and took out Denis Easton, Aidan Crowley and myself.”
But having been part of the 23 strong group of mainly county riders that was eliminated from the race for being outside the time limit on a mountainous stage four into Glengarrif last year, Marrey admits he still has some unfinished business with Ireland’s biggest bike race.
“Who knows what will happen this year? I’d love to have a go at getting a county rider prize on a stage but, for me now, that’s probably a step too far. My partner Mary is due our first-born the week of the national championships, so this will probably be my last Rás.
"Obviously I’m a year older than last year, so there’s always the chance that you could be humiliated again. But I’m going back to kill the monsters from last year.”
After winning a cyclocross race in Tuam in January (Photo with thanks to Sean O’Malley)
Feeling the pain having dug real deep trying to break the Mizen Head to Fair Head record a couple of years ago.
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