Katie George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal – winner’s of the female tandem gold medal
Dundalk cyclists had a successful weekend at the national championship held in Mullingar, picking up two gold medals.
First up in the men’s tandem time trial Bryan McCrystal and James Brown went quickest to claim the gold, while in the women’s tandem time trial Eve McCrystal and Katie George Dunleavy claimed the gold. Both of the McCrystal siblings have been involved in the Paralympic programme for some months now and are building towards the Olympics in Rio 2016.
Unfortunately a tragic road accident on Saturday morning saw the cancellation of the Vets and Women’s Road Race Championships on the Saturday. Here Eve would have been amongst the favourites to podium. While in the vets race, Cuchulainn had sent a strong team, spearheaded by the inform Alan Bingham would have hopefully been in the hunt for the team prize.
The men’s road race did go ahead on the Sunday and the field tackled a 171km race, where Ireland’s top professionals including Tour de France stage winner Dan Martin and former world track champion Martyn Irvine, lined up with the best domestic based riders. Early in the race Bryan McCrystal got himself into a break of eight riders that stayed away to the end. With 30km to go 19 year old Ryan Mullen rode away to a solo victory and claimed the national champions jersey. In the sprint for the remaining medals, McCrystal came agonisingly close to claiming a medal, but just missed out finishing in fourth place.
The latest round of the FPM Accountants Summer Cycling League saw the six groups race out to Greenore and back. A fast night of racing saw a small group of scratch riders catch all in front of them, with Alan Bingham taking the win ahead of Niall Clarke in second and Liam Dolan in third.
The JJB facility at Dundalk Retail Park, which will house the new velodrome
Cuchulainn Cycling Club have announced plans to build Ireland’s first international standard cycling velodrome in conjunction with Dundalk IT in their newly acquired JJB building at Dundalk Retail Park.
The plans for the indoor velodrome have been presented to Cycling Ireland, who are said to have welcomed the project, which is an updated version of Cuchulainn’s initial plans for a cycling park in nearby Muirhevnamor.
The JJB building was originally constructed to house 12 indoor soccer pitches, a swimming pool, gym, ice-rink and bar/restaurant complete with 500 car parking spaces. Dundalk IT started negotiations to purchase the building in 2013 and finally signed off on the contract last month.
Cuchulainn CC announced their plans to build a velodrome and cycling park in Dundalk as part of its 75th anniversary celebrations in 2010. A velodrome is an arena for cycling, similar in shape to an athletics track, except with steeply banked corners that allow cyclists to reach speeds in excess of 80kph. This style of cycling is very popular around the world with 10 of the 18 cycling events held in London 2012 being held on the track.
Towards the end of 2013 a huge leap forward was made with the securing of planning permission and long term lease from Dundalk Town Council for a 7.5 acre site at Muirhevnamor Park, adjacent to DKIT. However since then an improved possible vision has started to take shape and, in consultation with the builders of London’s Olympic Velodrome and chief engineer, Gary Sheils of Sheils Engineering, the possibility of building the indoor track at the JJB facility was discussed.
Specialists saw huge potential in the building and plans drawn up by Sheils Engineering uncovered an extremely lucky coincidence – that the building is the perfect size to contain an international standard 250m circumference track.
“It was almost as if the original architect had a long term plan to put a track in this building,” said Sheils upon completing his measurements.
Is this what the new velodrome building will look like?
Preliminary discussions with DKIT, owners of the building, took place and further investigations commissioned. The project was presented to Cycling Ireland, who immediately spotted the potential to realistically construct not only Ireland’s first international standard velodrome in an existing modern facility, but were also delighted to hear that a completion date of September 2014 has been set.
An indoor facility further expands the possible use of the facility to include children, women, elite athletes and for people with disabilities as well as general cycling enthusiasts. The safe, enclosed, traffic-free track is a perfect environment to introduce both the sport and in general safe commuting practices to both children and adults alike. Additionally, Ireland’s current elite athletes and para-athletes have to undertake regular international travel to find appropriate training venues in their quest to win world and Olympic medals, thus this facility will cut down on the cost of competing.
The sport is currently on the rise in Ireland with Olympian Martin Irvine winning a World Championship and Caroline Ryan also claiming a silver medal at the 2013 Worlds in the pursuit event.
Current World Scratch Champion Martyn Irvine has welcomed the project saying “not only is it fantastic news for a local club but for cycling in Ireland.”
He went on to say that this development will benefit cyclists of all ages for years to come and enable Ireland to put a sustainable track programme in place. Martyn is currently based in the US as there is no suitable facility for him to train in this country.
The velodrome will also be available to grass roots cycling and will attract cyclists of all ages from across the country and further afield. The venue will facilitate everything from local underage leagues to national championships and international races.
In addition to the velodrome, the site will also accommodate a full sized BMX track and has the potential to incorporate a closed circuit cycling track around the perimeter.
Pat O’Shaughnessy, Cuchulainn Cycling Club Chairman and Board Member of Cycling Ireland, has expressed his delight at the news.
He said: “Our club secretary Karl Dolan originally proposed the idea to the club committee back in 2009 as a project to mark the 75th anniversary of the club. We have been working solidly in the background to realise this dream and it culminated in our announcement last year that Dundalk Town Council had granted us 7.5 acres of land with full planning permission for an outdoor velodrome and BMX track.
“However following a number of meetings with DKIT we knew that this would move the whole thing to an entirely different level and make Dundalk the cycling capital of Ireland and it’s all down to the hard work of the committee and club members.”
There are also huge benefits for Dundalk IT. Having an international velodrome as part of their sporting campus would be a major coup for them and, in fact, would make them the world’s first educational institution to have such a facility. Its presence will further extend its already excellent sporting pedigree and range of sporting facilities open to attracting students. In conjunction with its sports medicine departments, the Institute could become the premier cycling facility in the world, which would attract many nations and professional cycling teams in their quest for yellow jerseys and gold medals.
Following the model which has been recently launched in conjunction with Dundalk FC in soccer, it is envisaged that scholarships could also be offered to cyclists.
Dundalk has in the past been described as an ideal venue for such a facility with 11 of Ireland’s 15 biggest cycling clubs located less than 1.5 hours from Dundalk.
Cllr. Eamon O’Boyle, Chairman of Dundalk Town Council and Cllr. Declan Breathnach, Chairman of Louth County Council, Town Clerk, Frank Pentony, Sinead Roche, Dundalk Tourism Officer along with Karl Dolan and Pat O’Shaughnessy of Cuchulainn Cycling Club at the official launch of the Irish leg of the Giro d’Italia which will pass through Dundalk, Castlebellingham and Dunleer on 11th May 2014
History was made this week for County Louth, Dundalk town and Cuchulainn Cycling Club when its chairman Pat O’Shaughnessywas elected, by his peers, to the board of Cycling Ireland. Pat is the first Louth, Dundalk or Cuchulainn person to achieve such a prestigious position within the governing body of the sport in Ireland.
Pat has been steeped in cycling his entire life and remembers being three years old when first going to watch his father Sean and uncles, Eugene and Ollie, race. His uncle Ollie O’Shaughnessy is a former national champion, winning championships in 1960 and 1961. In fact, Pat even met his wife through cycling, when he began seeing Jack Murphy’s daughter Sharon; Jack also having numerous Irish Championship titles from the 60s, 70s and the 90s. The 2010 published book “Dundalk a Cycling History 1819 – 2010” actually shows four generations of Pat’s family, the most recent additions being his three boys Cian, Conor and Cillian, all of whom who are already avid fans of the bike.
Pat began his own racing career in 1973 when he took fourth in the novice race at the Paddy Neary Race, which is still run today. Back in ’73 the race was run on a circuit in Ravensdale, with the finish in Major’s Hollow. While he did race consistently it was more a love of the sport and simply riding the bike that Pat was known for. He is also well known for his exploits on another two wheeled machine, the motorbike! Having acted as a motorbike marshal at the Dundalk races, Pat was invited to act as a motorbike marshal at the Rás in 1993 and this began a 20 year affair with the race. Having not missed a single running of the race since then, Pat is now part of the PR team for the race and is responsible for piloting the official RTÉ camera man on each of the stages, as well as co-ordinating the stage end PR media releases. Over the 20 years he has seen the race become considerably more professional and estimates an increase of 3mphs as more professional teams have become involved.
In tandem with his role in the Rás has been his 18 year role as chairman of Cuchulainn Cycling Club. Pat has presided over the club from its glory days of underage racing in the early 90s, watched its decline early in the new century and then played a pivotal role in its rebuilding to a point where it has over 325 members, is in the top three clubs in the country and was twice voted Cycling Ireland’s “Club of the Year”. When asked what it is about the club that has made it so successful, Pat thinks it is that the club caters for everyone, from those wanting to ride five miles to a café, to those wanting to hurtle down mountains at breakneck speeds.
Much has been touted of the massive growth of cycling in the UK, where membership stands at 60,000, which works out at approximately one per million people in the country, however membership of Cycling Ireland is at 19,000, which works out at four per million. Despite of this, mainstream media in this country has not really picked up on the sport and this is an area Pat wants to tackle while on the board. Also funding from the government does not represent this huge interest in the sport and these are the areas where Pat will direct most of his focus. He is adamant that he will bring Cycling Ireland back to its members, through making the sport more visible and ensuring better communication from the sport’s governing body.
Another item that Pat will be pushing hard for will be the building of a Velodrome for the sport in Dundalk. Pat was part of the club committee that has secured land and planning permission for what would be the first international standard cycling track in the country. This would in no end help to promote the sport in the country and also mean that World Champions, like Martyn Irvine, would not have to go abroad to train.
To the people who know Pat they are in no doubt that he will rise to the challenges presented in his new role and are sure he will play a huge part in making the sport more visible to the cyclist and the public alike. The members of his club wish to pass on their congratulations and wish him the best of luck during his time on the board.
Talk of the Town 