Julian Dalby pulling on the Irish national champion's jersey in Waterford in 1990
By Cillian Kelly
Julian Dalby was little more than a fresh-faced kid when the 1990 Irish road race championships were held in Waterford, with a field of 113 riders trying to win the coveted title.
A breakaway of seven went clear and by the midway point they had a lead of over two minutes. The chase was disorganised behind and it seemed the jersey would be fought out amongst the escapees.
But 23-year old Dubliner Dalby had other ideas.
He broke clear of the bunch in pursuit of the leaders, and bridged the two-minute gap alone.
Then with nearly 50km remaining he attacked once more and nobody could follow. He time-trialled home to cross the line solo, 2'12" ahead of the runner up John Sheehan.
Advertisement
"It was a stupid thing to do,” Dalby said at the finish, “I'll never do anything like that again."
Some 21 years later, having had time to reflect Dalby hadn't changed his mind when stickybottle caught up with him.
“The real mistake I made was to even start the national road race championships. My physiology is really not suited to road racing and I always suffered in distance events. I didn’t feel right for two weeks after that race. I burn rocket fuel and need to use it sparingly.”
Here is Julian Dalby's basic formula for winning races:
1. Sit at the back of the peloton joking around.
2. Watch for the decisive breakaway move then make a solo blast across.
3. Go back to joking around in the break and conserving energy again.
4. With less than one kilometre to go, hit the after burners and go for the finish line.
5. Fail to cross the finish line ahead of everyone else? Pop a wheelie and go home.
Dalby was known as a bit of a lose cannon in his racing days. There's a famous story that he was once thrown off the Ràs for wearing a swastika on his helmet. He was also renowned for the exotic pets he kept at home.
“I had a twelve foot python that used to eat whole rabbits, piglets and the neighbourhood cats. I wired up the heating system on the snake tank myself and felt pretty proud of my DIY expertise. That was until the thermostat went berserk and fried the animal alive.”
“I had a stack of other critters too including bird-eating spiders, which went AWOL when I forgot to put the lid back on the cage. Never did find them...”
Not long after his win in the national road race, Dalby was at the centre of a controversial incident at the Liam Toolin Memorial race in Swords, Co Dublin, which saw him suspended from racing for four months after colliding with a child.
“Afterwards I was told I should have stayed at the scene of the accident and was subsequently suspended. I guess I felt a little let down by the cycling federation. I quit not long after that but there were other reasons too. I was not really improving at a sufficient pace and then there was the sneaking suspicion that I was not ideally suited to cycling as a sport.”
Despite those nagging concerns, Dalby racked up a hugely impressive tally of victories during his racing years. Becoming national road race champion would be the pinnacle of most Irish cyclists' careers but Dalby doesn't consider it as his best victory.
Related News
“My best win was the Tour de Toona which at the time was the largest Pro-Am event in North America [and has been won in recent years by Tom Danielson and Chris Horner]. My most undeserved win was the national 10 mile time trial championships in Kerry. I got a tow from a passing county council waste truck which pulled me up to about 65mph.”
“It would have been a new national record except I was travelling so fast when I hit the turn around point that it took me an extra half mile to slow down. Apologies to Phil Collins who, if I remember rightly, finished second that day.”
“My most beautiful win was the Grand Prix de la Banane, an international race in Guadeloupe. The name 'Banana' says it all. I consider the Caribbean my spiritual home and still like to spend time there.”
Much of Dalby's time in the Caribbean has been spent studying in college. After leaving the sport of cycling in Ireland behind, Dalby took the unusual step of pursuing a career in medicine.
“What makes people tick and what happens when it all goes awry has always fascinated me so that prompted me to go into medicine. I needed to find out how people work so I went to St George's University, a US medical school in Grenada where I also teach now. The campus is lined with palm trees and has a white coral sand beach in a tropical climate. It had been described as a 'Baywatch Med School' so my choice of college was a no-brainer.”
Currently, as well as working as an ER doctor, Dalby has become involved in mixed martial arts.
“My buddy and I wound up on an RTE television reality show and won ourselves a €250,000 apartment in Portugal. I come pre-programmed to try win at all costs! He has set up this fantastic Shinobi Academy MMA School so I am now involved with that.”
“I also like to try out many other sports. At the moment it's windsurfing and powerlifting.”
With such varied interests to take up the Dubliner's time, his love for the bike has waned and he rarely throws his leg over a crossbar at all anymore.
“I try to avoid bike races and the whole cycling scene. It was a vital phase of my life-cycle that I have passed through like chrysalis before becoming a winged insect. I have morphed into a very different athlete. I'm now 20+ kilos heavier and with a new mindset.”
“It would be an alien environment for me to return to cycling, time to move on. I made a lot of very dear friends that I will cherish to the last but we will always be friends, not because of cycling but just because they are good people.”
With his cycling exploits behind him, Dalby graduated from St George’s University in 2002. He completed his residency in internal medicine at East Carolina University in the US before returning to Grenada for a six month fellowship in histology.
He is registered to practice as a doctor in the UK, US and Ireland, where he now works in emergency medicine as a senior house officer at St James Hospital in Dublin.
