Former international rider Michael McNena in action for renowned French team Velo Club la Pomme Marseille in 1996. He's back in the saddle and planning an assault on the Rás, which he last rode 16 years ago.
By Brian Canty
Over a decade has passed since Michael McNena pinned on race numbers for a competitive cycling event.
But the Galway native says he has every intention of trying to put the hurt on when he lines up as part of Ciarán Power’s squad of comeback men for the An Post Rás in May.
Now working in the family’s construction business along with his brother Barry in Galway, the 37-year-old admits he thought Power was joking when he initially called him up before Christmas with the idea of riding the race.
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He’s since committed himself to the event which he has done twice in the past; 1996 and 1998.
“At first I thought it was to just go around Race the Rás,” McNena said of Power’s initial call and referring to the sportive that runs each day with the race,”
“I said that’d be great crack, we’d raise money and I told him I’d be into it. But then he told me we’re actually going to race it and I said no. But he kept ringing me. Around Christmas time then he rang again and I said I would.
“I’ve done it twice and I was going a lot better the second time, my form was good. I punctured on the third last day before one of the climbs and lost a bit of time there but I was up there every day competing.”
He said he won’t get too preoccupied with this year’s course or what other riders are doing in the run up to it.
“I don’t care who’s there,” he said.
“I’m just going to ride it with our team. We’ll watch out for each other and when it comes to the crunch then we’ll see how we can react to it.
“I hope to do either Rás Mumhan or the Tour of Ulster as preparation. I’m trying to get in behind the car at the weekend for a bit of speed and then I try and do four hours then another day; a bit of circuits as well.
“But it’s a big change for me. The bikes have changed. There’s power meters and all that. The bike I was riding up until I got one from Michael Smyth here in Galway recently was the same one I threw into the garage when I stopped cycling in 2001.
“James O’Donnell, another fella here in Galway, fitted my new bike, he was unbelievable. I never had anything like that before; a piece of string and tape was all I had in my day. But I’m not going into the Rás blind. I know what I need to do.
“Since I came back I’m enjoying it because I’m getting fitter. I nearly regret not coming back sooner but I don’t think I could’ve with work.
“People say you make your own time but when you’re working in your family business and have a family, it’s different. But I’m loving it now.
“I’m like a kid up on the bike again. I have to say though, my wife Aoife has been brilliant and has given me great support. I couldn’t commit to something like this without her. And my kids too, Cillian (5) and Anna (13); they’re really in my corner and it means a lot.
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“So I’ll just train away and see what happens; do some of the local races and in the Rás then, we’ll see. I’m not in it to win it but if I feel good I’ll do a bit of moving around; I won’t be sitting back, I’ve nothing to lose.
“If I’m feeling good I’ll be up there every day, I’m not just going to go on to try and ride around. When I was full-time on the bike I entered competitions to win them.”
McNena rode in France and Italy for the best part of 10 years and was viewed as one of the best prospects to emerge from Ireland in the 90s.
He was among what would now be regarded as a golden generation looking back; Ciaran Power, David O’Loughlin, former world junior champion Mark Scanlon and Brian Kenneally.
They were all riders who would almost certainly enjoy good pro careers in the cleaner pro peloton of today.
McNena had a very successful junior career; gave his life to the bike. And he continued to excel right into the U23 ranks. He was selected to ride on the Irish team at the World Championships in Valkenburg in 1998, a year when the Italians Ivan Basso, Rinaldo Nocentini and Danilo Di Luca managed a 1-2-3.
Cadel Evans and Thor Hushovd, elite world champions since then, were both in the top 20 of that race. For McNena, it was a case of what might have been.
“I was absolutely flying that day in Valkenburg. I had rode a brilliant race. I didn’t feel any pain and I couldn’t hurt myself, I just felt so fresh.
“I was so strong and I was about 10th or 12th wheel coming in towards the finish but maybe about 800-900 metres from the line there was a crash right in front of me.
“I didn’t come down but I remember the crash to this day. One of the guys got caught up in the wheel but when I tried to come around him there were 30 guys after coming around me.
“That was my best year ever on the bike; I think I won a stage of a race in Greece with VC La Pomme, my team at the time.
“And I was getting up there in a lot of other racers, despite it being one of the most rampant times in the sport for… you know what,” he said referring to the drugs crisis.
“I was definitely going to be in the top five in my own head in Holland. It was surreal for an Irishman at the time. The team we had; Ciaran Power, Davy O’Loughlin, Aidan Duff, Derek Finnegan; we were all going well.
“But the Italian team were unreal. I found the results sheet there from the race last year and a lot of guys in the race went on to have good careers.”
But the weekend wasn’t all bad as a fellow Connacht man wrote his name into Irish cycling history just 24 hours later.
“I remember going into the hotel room in Valkenburg after my race and Scanlon was on a massage table. I went over to him and said; ‘fuck it Mark you could win that race tomorrow, it suits you down to the ground’.”
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