Kanturk Cycling Club produced professionals through the ‘old-fashioned’ way of doing things

The founder of the youthfocused club said that five current professionals have passed through its ranks

KANTURK O’Leary Stone Cycling Club is not “doing too bad” considering it could take a lot of credit for the successes of several cyclists now riding at an elite level, including reigning Rás champion Dillon Corkery and former Tour de France Green Jersey winner Sam Bennett.

The club, sponsored by O’Leary Stone Monumental Works, was founded by local man and former cyclist Danny Curtin in 1992, when he saw that there was a need for a youth-focused club to be setup for riders in the south of Ireland. Since then, Danny told The

Corkman, the club has nurtured a handful of professionals.

They include 33-year-old Bennett, now cycling with UCI WorldTeam Decathlon–AG2R La Mondiale, who was trained by Danny for four years when he was young, and 27-year-old Banteer man Eddie Dunbar, who started the ongoing Giro d’Italia as the leader of Team Jayco–AlUla but was forced to abandon after crashing on Sunday’s second stage, the latest incident in what has been a “rough” year for him.

Josie Knight (27), who spent most of her life in Dingle, is another star to have been trained by Danny and the club. Now with British Cycling, the track cyclist has earned medals at the World and European Championships and won a silver medal in the team pursuit at the Tokyo Olympics.

Archie Ryan (22), who won a stage and the youth classification prize at this year’s 39th Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali race with his new team EF Education First, and Dillon Corkery, the 25-year-old Rás champion and rider for French Continental team St Michel-Mavic-Auber93, were also mentored by Danny and Kanturk O’Leary Stone for several years.

“So that isn’t bad in a couple of years, I’d say we’re the only club in Ireland that have that many pros gone through,” Danny said last week, before he was set to take off for Italy to meet Dunbar before the Giro began.

Despite the churn of national and international success stories to emerge from the club, there is no secret recipe behind the way it nurtures its riders according to Danny, who firmly believes in the “plain old-fashioned way of doing it”.

“I cycled down the road with them for a good bit. I don’t cycle anymore so now I follow them two or three nights of the week,” Danny explained.

“They do the winter training, we follow them with the van. I don’t go in for these big trainings. I don’t go in for these heart monitors, just the plain old-fashioned way of doing it.

“Put in the mileage and you’ ll do alright.”

Danny said that a big issue that modern day youth cyclists face is falling into the trap of thinking that more expensive equipment will win them races.

“If they aren’t happy they think by buying a bike for five or six thousand that they are going to win races. I have bikes here I bought in 1992, to start off young fellas because they couldn’t afford them, and they have gone through and they are still winning All-Irelands.

“Them bikes were maybe £200 or £300 at that time. If you don’t put the mileage in you won’t make it.

“They can all talk about this, that or the other thing. Do your mileage and do it right.

“There’s some people going out there and they think by going out killing themselves for two or three hours that’s going to make them good. You don’t do it like that because then you get sick of it.”

This month will be a big one for the O’Leary Stone cycling club, with Kanturk set to host the start of stage two of this year’s Rás Tailteann, which will travel an arduous 187km route to Sneem on Thursday, May 23.

Danny, who was recently voted ‘Kanturk Person of the Year’ for 2023 in recognition of his contribution to local cycling, said that it is the first time that a Rás start or finish will be held in the town for some years and the local club will be heavily involved in the setting up and stewarding of the event.

“It’s a big deal. “[Especially with] Dillon winning it last year. We’re putting a team from Kanturk into the race as well,” Danny said.