Action from this year’s Junior Tour: There are some very good Irish juniors, just not enough of them
Barry Meehan takes a trip down memory lane to the junior peloton of the 1990s and ponders why today’s bunches are so much smaller.
Cycling in Ireland is in the middle of a renaissance. Not since the days of Kelly and Roche have there been so many lycra-clad, smooth shaven legs on display along the highways and byways. But whilst the last cycling boom produced a spike in the numbers of racing cyclists coming through the ranks the same cannot be said of this current boom.
With many of the current senior racing bunches still made up of those who were brought to the sport during the Kelly-Roche era as underage and junior riders, the current crop of junior riders is noticeable for its lack of strength in numbers - although there are some very talented junior riders on the scene.
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This year’s National Junior Time Trial Championships – held in Co Louth last weekend - had an entry field of just seven. And the road race had only 30 or so riders. The Junior Tour of Ireland this year had a field of 66 riders with less than half being Irish riders. This was actually an improvement on some recent years.
I rode the Junior Tour in 1989 and 1990. On both occasions the field was close to 200-strong with over 160 Irish junior riders taking part. The list of previous winners includes Martin Earley, Stephen Spratt, Tommy Evans, Peter Daly, Mehall ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald, Mark Scanlon, Nicolas Roche, Sam Bennett and current Team Sky riders Ian Stannard and Luke Rowe amongst many other great riders. This list of names shows just how important a stepping stone junior racing is to senior success.
Waterford’s Robert Power won the senior A1 races in Limerick and Mitchelstown as a first year junior, beating some of the best senior riders in the country at the time. Underage riders witnessing performances like that were inspired to train harder to try to follow in his footsteps.
But it isn’t just racing success that young people are missing out on by their lack of involvement in the sport. The greatest adventures of many a young life took place traveling to and from races each weekend, with the greatest of all once again being the Junior Tour.
In our first year on the race our team car was a brown Ford Cortina estate with a hole in the floor. The second year it was blue and yellow Ford Transit minibus with no reverse. That didn’t matter too much until one morning while in a convoy heading to the stage start someone took a wrong turn and everyone had to turn around.
While all the other team cars were doing their three point turns we all had to pile out and push when reverse was needed for our team vehicle’s six point turn. One of the lads tried pulling and broke the rope holding the rear doors closed.
Our first year at the JT had a split stage from Killarney to Blarney on the morning of day three, with a 4-lap ‘criterium’ around St. Patrick’s Hill in Cork that evening. The crowds were almost 10 deep in places and it was like being in the Nissan Classic. My team mate Ray Clarke finished second on the stage to Victor Slynn but I managed to get my mug in The Cork Examiner the next day for having the most pained expression on the hill.
That year the race finished with a criterium around O’Connell Street in Dublin. Once again it was like being in the Nissan, with crowds screaming thunderous encouragement all the way around the circuit.
The following year - The Year Of The Yellow Minibus - Ray won the stage into Ennis and took home the green points jersey overall. It was a real sign of senior potential to come.
My best result that year was fourth into Dungarvan. I was kicking myself as my mother’s aunt was on the podium that day. She wrote a song called ‘Dungarvan My Home Town’ and anytime she returned to Dungarvan if there was a podium or a viewing stand she was up on it blasting it out.
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I can still picture Jason Meredith getting first into the corner as we sprinted down into the square. The first three on the stage hopped up onto the podium and instead of skulking away to lick my wounds I had to hang around to meet my Grand Aunt, looking up like a lost puppy and feeling like a tool.
Jason was a larger than life character from Finglas or Ballymun or some one of those places in Dublin that we only heard about on ‘Today Tonight’ at the time. He was an exotic creature to us, although I think the feeling was mutual. I remember him coming up to me in a race in Carlow asking how far it was to the hill. When I responded that I hadn’t a clue he replied ‘Sure aren’t youse all from the country?’
The friendships and camaraderie created during those days racing as a junior were some of the best made in a lifetime. I roomed with Ray on both Junior Tours and now 22 years later we work side by side running the shop in Clonmel together each day.
Perhaps the two biggest differences between then and now that give rise to the huge gap in numbers of juniors racing in a cycling boom are:
The Nissan Classic
We got to see Kelly and Roche racing up close here in Ireland and wanted more than anything to emulate our heroes. One glimpse of Kelly or Roche in full flight as a crowd roared them on would get a sixteen year old through a whole winters training.
Cycling to school
The bike we cycled to school on was the bike we started racing on. Ray had a Raleigh Pulsar, Fitzy had a Raleigh Winner and I had a Dawes Jaguar. We cycled to school just like almost everyone else. Then we cycled home, got changed as fast as we could and then cycled up to the GAA on the Western Rd in Clonmel to go training.
Nowadays kids get the Ford Galaxy to school, with no hole in the floor, all gears working and no rope holding the back door closed. If they are not in the Galaxy they are walking to school, slowly, in the rain with no jackets on. Neither of which will lead to an international cycling career.
So what can be done to encourage more junior riders to get into the sport?
I’ve noticed recently that local schools who ran sponsored cycles have led to a few new junior and underage riders turning up on training spins. Beginners leagues such as the ones that are run by Iverk Carrick Wheelers also seem to have produced some good, lasting numbers of competitive cyclists - the most notable being An Post-Sean Kelly rider Sam Bennett.
Other clubs such as Fermoy, Kanturk and Orwell seem to be having a good return for the hard work being put in bringing along underage and junior riders. Perhaps clubs such as these should be examined and whatever common denominators exist put in place by other clubs throughout the country. Just a thought.
Cheers
Barry
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