Wallace McNaul, left, with Tommy Lamb. Wallace leaves a proud life-long legacy within the sport in Ireland, especially in Ulster.
The death has been announced of Wallace McNaul, a stalwart of the Irish and especially Ulster cycling scenes for many decades.
Although he was originally a member of Ballymoney Cycling Club as far back as 1954, Wallace will perhaps be best remembered for his founding role at Team Route CRC in the '80s.
Thanks to Wallace, who died in the early hours of yesterday aged 76-years, the club was known for its black and red ‘home’ strip and had another white strip for ‘away’ races.
Some of the riders rode on his homemade WallaceSport frames in the club colours while trade team jerseys were strictly prohibited for club members. One former rider recalled sneaking onto back roads as a youngster while wearing pro team colours to train.
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“I donned the trade top and took the quiet roads to avoid detection but suddenly saw Wallace’s wee Fiat coming towards me," said Richard McNicholl.
“I wondered what the hell he was he doing down this country lane but it turned out he was investigating options for new traffic calmed race circuits.
“He swerved the Fiat towards me, jumped out and read me the riot act. Team Route clothing or leave the club were the only options available – and I was his top, 24 minute ten, schoolboy at the time.”
A stickler for ‘the rule book’, Wallace was also a renowned mechanic and served on numerous Irish teams in the 70s.
He also studied the training methods of the prolific East German teams of that era and was possibly ahead of his time in terms of long term goal setting and the development of youth and women's cycling.
In 1984 Wallace started to break the club into training groups of four, one of which featured Vanda McVicker, a schoolgirl at the time.
The plan was that of the four, one would likely go on to greatness while the other three would simply fall by the wayside.
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Of that first training group, McVicker went on to represent Northern Ireland at the Commonwealth Games in Auckland six years later.
With the cyclo-cross scene thriving here at the moment, it’s easy to forget that the bad old days ever existed. But Wallace was one of the few who kept the sport alive in Ireland years ago.
Not one for sitting idly by in the winter, he organised cyclo-cross leagues, ferried hot water from cow sheds to clean bikes and riders afterwards, before delivering hand typed results in tiny brown envelopes on the following Tuesday morning.
Cyclo-cross numbers at the time were so small that every rider got one through their letterbox.
“Anyone who has been on a bike in the Ballymoney area will know of Wallace McNaul,” said Maurice McAllister of Ballymoney CC.
“He was involved in cycling for over sixty years and was the founder of Team Route with whom he travelled far and wide.
“He was instrumental in getting ladies involved in the sport in this area and even though I have spent the last forty years in cycling myself, I would always have felt able to go to Wallace for advice.
“He was a wee man who did so much without any real recognition, including assisting Maurice Foster OBE in his record-breaking achievements.
“Wallace had a great interest in photography and collecting memorabilia about Ballymoney especially footage of local characters and, of course, the trains. Unfortunately, due to ill health he was prohibited from doing much, much more.”
Although Wallace fell into ill health in the 90s, rather than hand the reigns of his club over to someone else, a renowned stubborn streak saw him simply limit the membership and continue as usual, which he did until 2001.
Involved with cycling for over 60 years, Wallace was bestowed with honorary membership of Cycling Ireland and as will be remembered fondly in Irish cycling as ‘the wee man who cast a big shadow.’
From all at stickybottle, we would like to extend our condolences to Walllace's family and his many friends in cycling.
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