Mark O'Callaghan's shoes might not be much to look at, but he insists they are so comfortable he has no intention of upgrading. Above, leading a break during a race he won last year, the Tommy Brady Memorial in Meath.
Mark O’Callaghan can never, ever be accused of being a high maintenance kind of guy.
The 19 year-old Limerick man produced some top results in 2015, winning the Tommy Brady Memorial in July less than a month after clocking 560 points in his Leaving Cert.
He won that race by beating some big hitters like Cathal Moynihan (ex-Aquablue) and Aaron Buggle (Fixx Rouleurs) – and wearing the shoes pictured below.
He has absolutely no intention of changing them – even though he has to fasten them with insulating tape every time he wants to use them.
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“I’m not even sure if they look bad enough to write about,” he replied to a call from stickybottle today, clearly not seeing the news value in this.
“I got them just over two years ago on sale on Chain Reaction for half price.
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“I don’t even want to replace them. They’re savage comfortable so I’ll hang onto them as long as I can,” he added without a hint of doubt.
O’Callaghan will be in the running for a place on an Irish U23 team if he continues to progress - and the black shoes won’t be going anywhere for a while, no matter what jersey he wears.
He traces their early origins thus: “I may have crashed on the final corner in the VisitNenagh Classic the year before last and the buckles haven’t been right since then.
“I needed shoes and just said I’d tape them up until I got new ones. But then I got used to the feel of having them taped up and just never bothered to change them since.
“I bring a roll of black tape with me everywhere the bikes goes.
“The shoes are completely useless without them. It’s not that bad really; the rolls of tape last over two weeks and cost a euro.”
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