By Louise Hickey
Daire Feeley may be the most successful rider on the domestic scene but he's made mistakes on the way to achieving his racing goals and finding happiness as a person. In this piece he talks about how he got started, how he shed kilos in weight while racing in France and lost years of his career as a result. He explains how he got his motivation and performance back on the tracks after that period. The Roscommon rider discusses the need to inflict defeat on rival riders so they don't gain too much confidence they can beat him again. And he outlines why riders must be truly honest with themselves about their abilities before even considering going abroad to race.
He reveals how his results and life experiences in the cycling game recently opened the door to doing a Masters at university despite not having a primary degree. He also speaks about quickly abandoning his second stint at international racing, with EvoPro Racing, earlier this year. Feeley reflects on his Rás Tailteann win; the pressure it brings and how it has changed him - in his own mind and in the eyes of others.
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How did you begin cycling?
I started cycling when I was 13 years of age. There's no history of cycling within my family. I actually come from a GAA family. My parents bought me a bike one Christmas and the local cycling club here in Roscommon town had a cycle on St Stephen’s Day. I went out with them on my mountain bike, and we did 10k. They called it a ‘turkey burner’. I went out with the club the following weekend, and it had a snowball effect from there.
Could you give an outline of some of the main stages you progressed through since then?
I started racing when I was under 14. I didn't really give my racing much attention due to other commitments, like football and hurling, when I was younger. That was up until I hit second-year junior. My father bought me a new bike again at the time and I said, ‘Jesus, I better commit because he's after making a big investment there’. That winter, before my second year as a junior, I started to train every single day. There was no major structure at all, just riding my bike. That transformed me. I came back the following year and I was winning nearly every race I entered. I represented Ireland for the first time as a second-year junior. I rode the junior Europeans in Switzerland and junior World Championships in Spain. From there I thought I had something. I thought ‘I’m not too bad, I can give it a good rattle’.
Since then it's been one year after another. There’s been plenty of highs and lows along the way. I suppose the biggest mistake I made was making the move to go full-time and just going about it the wrong way in terms of preparation for races. I was living in a place outside Monaco at the time, in Menton. I was there for three seasons; three years as an U23 rider. That whole environment, and mistakes I made in terms of the way I was fuelling and training and recovering…. I was all about the bike. I had no life away from the bike. And I think the fact that I had no life away from cycling, and the way I was not eating properly and stuff like that - just trying to get my weight down for going up the mountains where we were racing - had a really, really bad effect on my performance and the results.
While I was still representing Ireland at the time - I still had a reasonably good level that allowed me to be selected for the Irish team - I just wasn't performing as I would like to have been. And those mistakes, you know, they cost me three years in my development and I'm only starting to come good now. You hear it all the time when you're reading articles about losing weight; power-to-weight ratios, things like that. I lost a lot of weight. I came from racing in Ireland at 65 kilos, to dropping down to 57 kilos. I lost eight kilos, in a very short space of time. While my numbers look good on paper, I just didn't have the capacity or the endurance to be able to perform in races. And I just couldn't get the power-to-weight thing out of my head. I was always focusing on the number on the scales and not my performance in races.
And when I did step away and then return to racing in Ireland in 2020 my performance just turned around. I started doing things like fueling properly. I also started to have a bit more of a social life, which took me away from cycling for a bit, which gave me a break. That was a big turning point for me in terms of performance. My performance started to go through the roof. In 2021 I won 10 races. Last year, I think I won 10 races as well. This year, I won 15 and I won the Rás. I'm 25 years of age now and I think I'm only getting better. We see nowadays that a lot of riders are getting really good between the ages of 18 to 22 whereas I'm one of those who has been a late bloomer.
Was the weight loss and mental side of things the reason why you stopped racing abroad?
Yeah, I stopped riding internationally because; between the weight loss side of things, and not having a life, it just really messed with my head and my mental health. Look, it is what it is. It's all well and good in hindsight, but you know, that environmental factor is very important. Just being around your family and friends and having some form of escape from the sport itself. Cycling requires a massive amount of commitment, and it takes up so much of your time. If you don't have a way of escaping that, it can be hard on your mental health. And when you're not happy, you don't perform your best when it comes to races. It's just a recipe for disaster.
Considering you’re in a much better mental position now and with everything you’ve learned, would you ever consider racing abroad again?
I gave it a go at the beginning of this year with EvoPro and I left the team in May. It just wasn't the environment that I needed to thrive and develop. I just had to take a step away and because of that, I suppose I don't think I'm ever going to go back and give it another go. I'm happy with what I have now at the moment. I'm working, I have a good job as a youth development officer with Cycling Ireland. I have my own coaching business on top of that and I'm still quite successful. I've got a successful cycling career made for myself here in Ireland.
You don't need to go abroad to be successful as a cyclist. You can win races here in Ireland that will open many doors for you. I suppose the biggest thing for me, especially after winning the likes of the Rás and being the number one ranked Irish rider for the past three years, is I've got into a masters in DCU without having a primary degree. All of my results and my training is a form of experiential learning, so I've been awarded a place in my masters course in DCU. I’ve also been sponsored by a number of individuals and companies. I suppose looking back on my cycling career, just racing in Ireland has probably been a far greater success than the vast majority of people who've gone racing abroad. But that's not to say that just because you're racing in Ireland, and you're not racing with the professional riders abroad, that you don't have to do the same amount of work. It's not the case at all. You literally have to do the same work in order to race at a high standard in Ireland. There have been many times along the way, especially in those earlier years when I was racing in France and even with the Irish team, I just said to myself, ‘right, I'm going to give up, this isn't for me’. But perseverance paid off in the end.
What are you studying for your masters?
Elite sports performance. I’m in my first year of that. It’s remote and designed around professionals to give them the chance to study from home. I don’t think I could do it full-time with financial commitments and work, but I’m enjoying it now.
You mentioned coaching, when did you begin that?
I started coaching when I was 17, but not actually working with cyclists on a one-to-one basis. I was a coach with the local sports partnership in Roscommon. I started coaching racing cyclists about four years ago. I only properly got into it and advertised it during the first lockdown. It’s been great to be able to do the masters to help with that. Ideally, in the future I'd love to just be a cycling coach and have an opportunity to ride my bike whenever I want.
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You’re obviously delighted to have won the Rás this year. Can you recall when you first heard of the race and when you decided you wanted to compete?
The Rás finished in my hometown in like 2014 or 2015, not entirely sure there, but my father was involved in the race finish committee for the town. He was helping get the place ready for the race to come in and finish. That was the first time I ever came across the Rás. And it was something that had been spoken about amongst the club members. They’d say if you ride the Rás you’re a 'man of the Rás'. If you complete the Rás it's a massive, massive achievement. It's a very difficult thing to do. It was around that time, I said to myself, ‘right, I'd love to be able to call myself a man of the Rás’. I rode my first Rás in 2016. It was a baptism of fire, to say the least. The level was extremely high.
After that, I said to myself, ideally, in the future, it would be nice to just be competitive in a stage of it, maybe get a result. Then this year, I suppose I'd had a turning point in terms of performance (since the Rás was last held - Ed). The overall win was something I had in the back of my mind. Especially over the winter gone by, I set out a goal wanting to go to the Rás and win it. I wouldn't have been satisfied with second place or anything like that, especially coming off the back end of winning so many races over the past while. Having that goal of finishing first was something that kept me going in terms of going out and doing the work required to get to the level to be able to win it. It's funny, I still haven't had an opportunity to think about it, because I've been so busy ever since. I do get glimpses of it now and again, I have those pinch-me moments where I'm like, ‘Jesus, I'm after ticking off a massive goal of mine’. It's a goal that can't be taken away from me. To be a 'man of the Rás' is a brilliant achievement. To be a winner of the Rás is incredible, absolutely incredible.
At what point during the race did you realise you were going to win?
I’m thinking of stage three when I took the yellow jersey. I thought, ‘well I have the physical capacity to win the race’. Once I took the yellow jersey, I said to myself, ‘I've been preparing for this for the past while’. And the challenges ahead of me, in terms of physical performance, would have been nothing new to me. To answer your question properly, I suppose I didn't realise I was going to win the Rás until maybe a kilometre to go on the last stage. I remember my All human-Velorevolution teammate coming up beside me with about a kilometre to go. He pulled me away from the bunch sprint, and he says 'keep upright'. And then maybe 100 meters after that, he says, well-done lad, you just won the Rás. And that was the point where I realised that I had won.
How did your team, your team manager and your family feel on the day?
Ah, I think they were all even happier than me. I live in a place called Moorpark in Roscommon, when I came back there were bonfires lit on the road, all yellow flags out, and signs everywhere. People would stop me when I go into Aldi for the shop and ask me to take a picture with their young lad. It’s all a bit crazy. To be honest, without the support of those individuals, even somebody saying well done, without that support along the way it would’ve been a very hard journey. Whatever you're pursuing, there are always obstacles that you have to overcome and without support it’s very difficult to persevere.
Do you feel any kind of performance pressure now?
Massive, massive pressure that I put on myself more so because I set the bar so high. The only problem after winning such a big race in Ireland is 'what’s next?' It’s very hard to have a goal as big as that. I suppose the only thing will be to go back and defend that title next year. Every race I go to now I have to win or assist in delivering one of my teammates to win. Second place just doesn’t cut it anymore. I'm not saying that second place is a bad result. It's just not a result that I would be satisfied with. More work than in previous years needs to be done because there are a lot of younger lads coming through. The younger riders are getting stronger and stronger and they're going to boost the competition, they're going to bring the level and they're going to challenge me. I’ll do what I can to win the Rás again next year. That's the goal of the team as well. Defending the title would be an incredible achievement.
Who would be your biggest competitor for next year?
I think the likes of Matthew Teggart would be my biggest competitor. It's very important for me that I hit the ground running next year and get the results from day one. One thing that I did notice after the Rás was it was very difficult to motivate myself to train for the remaining races of the year because they were just kind of insignificant when I compare it to my previous goal of winning the Rás. I started to only train two days a week, compared to training seven days a week. I was in a situation where I took my foot off the gas big time, and other guys kept on training and I was even beaten in some races where I shouldn't have been beaten. I was allowing the competition to beat me in a race and that can give them the confidence that they need. It’s very important that I inflict the heavy blow to their ego, to let them know that I'm here to win. If somebody sees that you can be beaten in some form or another, it gives them confidence. It can often bring them on to another level of performance. It's very important that I keep on winning races after the Rás for sponsors and just for my own satisfaction.
Winning the Rás is a life achievement, do you think it gave you more confidence inside and outside of cycling? Did it change you as a person?
It did change me. From a coaching perspective, a lot of the time riders are just missing that confidence. That confidence can only come from getting results in races. Once riders see that they're capable of achieving something, it's amazing how they just transform. And a lot of the time it's not down to the training that they're doing. Sometimes they just need a small bit of luck along the way, where they finished third in a race, and that success starts to snowball over time. I see it all the time. A rider who was trying to win or trying to get results all the time, and it's just not working out for them, but then the day comes when they do get that result. Then after that, they’re always in the results. I definitely feel that sense of confidence.
When the time comes to eventually look back on your cycling career, what would you need to achieve in the next few years to be happy when that time comes?
If I can win the Rás again and win the national championships that would complete cycling for me. I can get quite greedy though. But that’s the goal for now.
What advice would you give to an upcoming competing cyclist?
Let’s say we’re looking at a younger rider. The first thing we tend to see is young riders getting great results. Then they're getting praised left, right and centre. People are saying that they should go abroad because they're good enough. The reality is unless you’re winning at the level I am - always coming first, second or third - then it’s not time to start thinking about going abroad. If you’re an average Joe finishing mid-bunch, you might get the odd win now and again, that just doesn’t cut it. You’d just be demoralised if you went abroad. If you do decide to go abroad, the second thing I would say is to understand the work that is required. Even if riding at an A4 level, the work required to be successful in the sport now is a lot more compared to five years ago.
Everybody is being coached, everybody is training with the latest methodology in terms of monitoring heart rate or power. Everybody has invested in very expensive equipment. The only thing that you're in control of is the work that you're doing. Do not be delusional about the work required. If you want to be successful in cycling, whether you're an A4, an A1, or a professional rider, you have to put a lot of work into it. It's no good just following an eight-hour per week programme. You'll be successful early on, but it will slowly die also because the competition is doing just as much work as you are, if not more. So, work, work, work, and the work will bring you success at the end of the day.
