Amateur Dramatics
Eoin Morton caught the pros on the hop at last year’s An Post Rás, while former full-time rider Ronan McLaughlin hopes to create an upset at this year’s race. They both talk to Fergus McDonnell about their lasting love of the sport
Fergus McDonnell talks to two amateurs who will be watched closely by the professionals in the year’s An Post Rás
WHEN the flag falls for the first stage of An Post Rás on May 21 and the riders set off on their 1,200km battle against the elements, the terrain and each other, the professionals will be in the unusual position of having the race number of an amateur on their list of riders to watch.
Last year, Eoin Morton caught them napping when he crossed the line first on the 183km second stage from Mullingar to Charleville, thus becoming the first amateur to win a stage of the Rás since 2009 and following in the footsteps of his father Peter, who won a stage into Mallow in 1979.
“I attacked from the off that day,” recalls Morton of his victory last year, “but the first three times I was reeled in again by the bunch. Then I got away with Bryan McCrystal and we managed to stay clear.
“We had a gap of six and a half minutes when we crossed the only climb of the day with 50km left and we figured at that stage that we could go all the way to the line. Bryan is very strong and can ride at a high tempo all day. He attacked me with 10km left but I bust a gut to hang on to his wheel and managed to outsprint him in the last 300m.
“We only had seven seconds to spare at the finish though, which gives you some idea of the speed the bunch were travelling at.”
It was a remarkable achievement for a sportsman who seems to embody the amateur ethos of a bygone era.
There was a time in Ireland, and it’s not too long ago, when all our top sportsmen and women were amateur — from international footballers and rugby players to athletes and, of course, Gaelic footballers and hurlers.
This ethos seems to be eroding all the time and even though they might not be getting paid, those who wish to compete at the highest level need to be supported by sponsors and are most likely to be students — allowing them to devote many hours to training.
Morton is different. He holds down a nine-to-five job and builds his training around work.
“I live in Bray and cycle to work in Dublin city centre every day. Then, in the evenings, I head off up the mountains and do a couple of hours on the way home.”
You might reasonably imagine that tearing around narrow mountain roads on dark, wet, cold winter evenings would be a pretty scary experience, but Morton shrugs it off. “Riding in a bunch, that’s the scary part,” he says.
“Once you’re out of the traffic and on the unlit roads it’s fine. I have good lights on the bike and it’s actually quite therapeutic after a stressful day at work.” All that dedication needs a solid support structure and his fiancée Camilla holds the fort while Morton is pedalling around the roads in the early morning or late evenings.
Although his father enjoyed no little success on two wheels, Morton took up the sport relatively late in life. “I only really started riding when I was 22,” he says. “I played basketball [in the National League with Swords] and when I finished my degree I went travelling the world for a year.
“When I returned to do my Masters in UCD, I started cycling the 25 or 30k to college every day and that was really how I took it up.
“I used to bring my bike into the lecture halls with me because I was afraid of it getting stolen, which of course made me very popular with the facilities people. And then I was second in the first race, first in my second and first again in my third. That was when I started to realise that I might be half decent at this game.”
Being half decent at this game is a concept also familar to another member of the amateur contingent lining up for this year’s Rás, Ronan McLaughlin.
The Donegal man will have turned 30 a couple of months before the race kicks off — a fact he was, of course, delighted to be reminded of — but that is no barrier to his ambitions to do well in the race.
Having spent six years racing internationally as part of the An Post-Sean Kelly team, McLaughlin hasn’t been too put out by the move from what he calls the ‘never-never land’ of professional racing back to the real world of having to work for a living.
“There are parts of it I miss, of course, but I don’t miss the misserable, wet and cold weather of early-season races in Belgium. Life then was all about riding, training and recovering and I have to say I enjoyed every minute of it.
“If I was still training full-time, I’d probably be at my peak about now,” he says. “But in fact, since I’ve returned to training part-time my weight and my power numbers haven’t changed that much.
“The big difference is in being able to do it over and over again.”
Now working in Derry, within easy reach of his beloved Muff, McLaughlin reveals a striking affinity with the terrain of Donegal when he explains that even when he was based abroad, if the weather forecast was any way decent, he would prefer to return home to train.
“The roads around here seem to suit me,” he adds. “The small backroads around Inishowen are fantastic for whatever type of training you want to do and I enjoy the four or five kilometre climbs, they’re long enough to make a break but not the real hard ones.”
So you can imagine how his brain must have been working overtime when he saw the route for this year’s race. He still feels the pain of 2012 when he came agonisingly close to winning the stage into Inishowen, riding on his own for 70km before being caught in the final 200m.
And while this year’s route offers several chances to claim a stage in his own county, he places just as much value on winning in Longford or anywhere else.
“I’ve seen people return from full-time riding having failed to make it and they’ve fallen out of love with the bike. Even when it’s hard to drag yourself out, if I don’t go I always feel worse. I just love it and as long as I keep enjoying it, I’ll keep racing.”
His words are echoed by Morton. Asked if an offer came to join the pro ranks, he has a very simple but well-thought out answer.
“It would have to be a very good offer. I have a fiancée, a lovely house, a good job and a hobby that I’m good at.”
The prize money from his stage win last year paid for a new kitchen, so who could blame him for being happy with his lot? In many ways he is already living the dream.