Tag: Great Irish Riders

Sean Kelly was the ‘King of the Classics’ for many years but the man from Carrick-on-Suir also won the Vuelta a España and many shorter stage races. His record at Liège-Bastogne-Liège is only beaten by Argentin and Merckx. We spoke with the Irishman for his thoughts on the ‘Old Lady’ of the road.

In the CTT Ladies’ National 100 Mile Championship Scottish based Jo Patterson stopped the clock with 3:36:41, shaving over five minutes from the record.

We spoke to Peter Doyle recently, the man from Wicklow who won just about everything there was to win at home, the Shay Elliott Memorial, the National Championship, the Tour of Ireland, the Rás and a raft of other single day and stage races.

I know, I had a ‘pop’ at ‘Everesting’ in a recent rant but when AN Post Flatlands veteran, Ronan McLaughlin contacts me to tell me he’s just broken the Irish record with 8 hour 09 minutes, the fifth best time in history behind Bert Contador’s 7:27, I have to pay attention…

Ireland’s ‘Rás,’ a cult bike race; Marcin Bialoblocki, Tony Martin, Stephen Roche and Scotland’s own Jamie McGahan number among the GC winners. So who’s...

In Part One of our interview with former Irish Champion, Alan McCormack we covered his junior days, his seasons as a pro in the UK with Carlton-Weinmann and in Belgium with Old Lords-Splendor then his introduction to the 80’s US scene. By seasons ‘83 and ‘84 he was a fixture on the US race scene...

I used to look at those ‘Winning’ magazines in the mid-80’s and think how glamorous and cool the US scene looked, especially those super-fast criteriums with huge crowds and big bucks sponsorship and prize lists. A man who lived and raced through that golden era of US racing was Irishman, Alan McCormack who was not only a North American ‘crit King’ but rode the Olympics and Vuelta along the way.

The end of an era for sure – no big Matt Brammeier in the pro peloton for season 2019? It seems like he’s been around forever but is actually only 33 years-old. We couldn’t let that pass without taking a wander through his long and varied career; GB junior and u23 champion then a change of nationality thanks to Irish grandparents which brought four consecutive Irish Elite Road Titles against men like Nico Roche, Dan Martin and Philip Deignan.