Well, I never actually thought this day would come. All through my cycling career I’ve seen teammates old and new “retire.” Something that I initially thought could be the worst thing ever to happen to me. As I sit here here now typing this it just feels right. Don’t get me wrong though, this decision I have not taken lightly. Something has just happened to me over the last 1-2 years and I can’t really pin point it. Okay, I’ve had a few crashes that have left metal inside me but I came back from them. I mean, I won a European medal 6 months after breaking my hip! It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that its a mental thing. However, its not that simple. I really miss racing, even now when I’ve barely stopped. It just feels like a natural end though. For the last year I’ve been racing and under performing across the board. Frustration has been setting in all year and I’m sick of just turning up to bike races. I set my own bar by winning 7 medals in a row. Worl...
Just to be clear! I felt the need to say something because I feel like the “hard done by” theme is being put out there when it comes to myself. I am really happy! All the stuff you have been reading is true, not a word of a lie but people are jumping on the - lack of, shoulda, woulda coulda stuff. I loved racing bikes. When I got shit at racing bikes, I stopped! I still love the thought of racing but getting paid for it was becoming hard to do. I do feel that things need to change to help young athletes become champions. It’s not cycling that is the problem, it’s not the sports council’s problem, it’s not the sponsors fault, it’s ours! All these organizations meet demand to a degree, there are exceptions though! The sports that get the help in Ireland are the highest supported sports when it comes to bums on seats. There was a Class 1 UCI race held in Ireland last year. It was a track race, I was in it and it was held at Sundrive Velodrome. It was ran perfectly, ever...
I’m back on my travels and thought I’d check in with whoever is reading this. I warn ya though, what you are about to read could be slightly, maybe, possibly a little bit on the negative side! Hopefully I’m over what has been a pretty crap few weeks. I can’t tell you the frustration I’ve had but that’s life. I’ve gone through loads of phases ranging from chilled out/that’s life mentally to angry and flapping about in a panic. Now that I’m able to get going again I just hope things go my way. As I type this I’m 9 days post-op and I’m surprised how quick things have come on since the surgery. The surgery itself left me in a heap for the first two days. Once the anesthetic and drugs involved with surgery cleared out of my systems I was back at it pretty quickly. There was major progress on Thursday when I was able to back squat in the Gym. Thanks to Chris and Lisa in SINI for the good direction on that one. My view from the squat rack at the Sports Institute of Nort...
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