Team information | |
---|---|
Discipline | Road bicycle racing |
Role | Rider |
Professional team | |
1989-1993, 1995 | Irish National Cycling Team |
Major wins | |
|
Paul McQuaid is an Irish cyclist who has represented Ireland in several global competitions, as well as winning Ireland's two best known road cycling races.
McQuaid comes from a road bicycle racing family, his father Jim and uncle Paddy being senior Irish amateur cyclists. His brothers Kieron and Oliver as well as his cousin John McQuaid represented Ireland in the world road championship and the Olympic road race, and Pat McQuaid is also a former president of the Union Cycliste Internationale. [1]
McQuaid represented Ireland in the 1989 world championships in Chambery, France. In 1991 he represented Ireland in the Hapoel Games in Israel. 1992 saw him represent Ireland in the Franco-Belge, Tour de Normandie, Tour of Europe and Giro delle Regioni in Italy. An injury knocked him out for 1993 but he came back in 1994 with rides in the Gran Premio Liberazione and Giro delle Regioni in Italy and fourth in Ireland's National Tour, the Rás Tailteann. He then made the national team for the world championship in Bogotá, Colombia in 1995. In 1995 he won the FBD Rás Tailteann. [2] He also won race the Shay Elliott Memorial Race in 1988.
McQuaid was proprietor of Phoenix Park Bike Hire for eight years, and now runs River Cycles, also a bike rental shop, at Usher's Island within Dublin's South Quays. [3] McQuaid has also run Celtic Trails cycling tours in the west of Ireland starting in 1997.
Stephen Roche is an Irish former professional road racing cyclist. In a 13-year professional career, he peaked in 1987, becoming the second of only two cyclists to win the Triple Crown of victories in the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia general classification, plus the World road race championship, the first being Eddy Merckx. Roche's rise coincided with that of fellow Irishman Sean Kelly.
Dainis Ozols is a former professional cyclist from Latvia. In the 1992 Summer Olympics he won a bronze medal in the 194 km road race, finishing in 4:32:24, 3 seconds behind Erik Dekker of the Netherlands and 4 seconds behind the winner Fabio Casartelli of Italy. He competed in one Grand Tour in his career: the 1995 Vuelta a España, where he finished 50th overall.
John James 'Sean' Kelly is an Irish former professional road bicycle racer, one of the most successful road cyclists of the 1980s, and one of the finest Classics riders of all time. From becoming a professional in 1977 until his retirement in 1994, he won 193 professional races, including nine Monument Classics, Paris–Nice a record seven years consecutively and the first UCI Road World Cup in 1989. Kelly won one Grand Tour, the 1988 Vuelta a España, and four green jerseys in the Tour de France. He achieved multiple victories in the Giro di Lombardia, Milan–San Remo, Paris–Roubaix and Liège–Bastogne–Liège, as well as three runners-up placings in the only Monument he failed to win, the Tour of Flanders. Other victories include the Grand Prix des Nations and stage races, the Critérium International, Tour de Suisse, Tour of the Basque Country and Volta a Catalunya.
Philip Christopher Clarke was an Irish business consultant and competitive cyclist, who had been an Irish Republican Army member in the 1950s. As a cyclist, he competed in the first two Rás Tailteann races, and represented Ireland internationally. In 1954 he was imprisoned after an IRA raid on a British Army barracks in Northern Ireland, and the following year he was elected to the British parliament as the Sinn Féin MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone; as he was imprisoned, his election was overturned on petition. He was released from prison in 1958, after which he broke his ties with the IRA. In later life, he worked for the Irish Management Institute and as an independent business consultant
Rás Tailteann, often shortened to the Rás, is an annual international cycling stage race, held in Ireland. Traditionally held in May, the race returned after a hiatus in 2022 as 5 day event held in June. By naming the race Rás Tailteann the original organisers, members of the National Cycling Association (NCA), were associating the cycle race with the Tailteann Games, a Gaelic festival in early medieval Ireland.
Paul Kimmage is an Irish sports journalist and former amateur and professional road bicycle racer, who was road race champion of Ireland in 1981, and competed in the 1984 Olympic Games. He wrote for The Sunday Times newspaper and others, and published a number of books.
Nicolas Roche is an Irish cyclist, who competes in gravel cycling for his own NR GRVL team. He is also a former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2005 and 2021 for seven different teams.
Matthew Stephens is a British former professional road racing cyclist and Cycling presenter, who rode as a professional between 1998 and 2011.
Tobias Steinhauser is a German former professional cyclist. He is the brother-in-law of Jan Ullrich.
Patrick "Pat" McQuaid is an Irish former road racing cyclist who served as the president of the Union Cycliste Internationale from 2005 to 2013.
Martin Earley is an Irish former professional road bicycle racer, who competed in the 1984 and 1996 Olympic Games.
The Shay Elliott Memorial race is a one-day road cycling race held in spring in Ireland. It is run in honour of Ireland's first professional cyclist, Seamus Shay Elliott and organised by Bray Wheelers. The race was previously known as the Route de Chill Mhantain, became the Shay Elliott Trophy in the late sixties, then the Shay Elliott Memorial after his death in 1971. The race is the most prestigious Irish one-day event after the national championships.
Séamus "Sé" O'Hanlon also known as Shay O'Hanlon is a former Irish amateur road racing cyclist. He was a top amateur in Ireland in the 1960s and 1970s, winning the Rás Tailteann stage race in 1962, 1965, 1966 and 1967. O'Hanlon belonged to the National Cycling Association (NCA), one of the three cycling associations in Ireland at that time and the one whose members were excluded by the UCI from world championships and Olympic Games. O'Hanlon frequently brings HB brunches or vienetta ice creams to his beloved grandchildren.
St. Kevin's College is a Roman Catholic day secondary school for boys in Glasnevin, Dublin, Ireland. The school was founded in 1967 by the Christian Brothers and is now under the trusteeship of the Edmund Rice Schools Trust. It is dedicated to St. Kevin of Glendalough, the patron saint of Dublin, and is built on lands previously owned by the Ball family in the 16th century. The current principal is Eoghan Rooney. The school has approximately 550 students.
Sam Bennett is an Irish professional cyclist who rides for UCI WorldTeam Decathlon–AG2R La Mondiale. He is a road sprinter who turned professional in 2011. He has won ten Grand Tour stages: three stages in the 2018 Giro d'Italia, two stages at the 2019 Vuelta a España, two stages at the 2020 Tour de France, where he also won the Points classification, one stage at the 2020 Vuelta a España, and two stages at the 2022 Vuelta a España.
Michael (Mick) William Cusack is an Irish international racing cyclist, author and speaker. He competed as a member of the Irish national cycle racing team from 1974–1978 and also at the Gran Fondo World Championships in 2022 and 2023.
Padraig "Paudie" Fitzgerald was an Irish cyclist. He won the Rás Tailteann in 1956. He was also known for a failed attempt to represent Ireland at the 1956 Summer Olympics.
James K. McQuaid was an Irish road racing cyclist and later cycling administrator, coach and team manager from Dungannon, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, for most of his life based in Dublin, Ireland. From a family that became prominent in Irish cycling, he raced competitively, co-founded a cycle racing club. and served on the committee of the national cycling federation.
Frank Ward is an Irish retired cyclist. He won the Rás Tailteann in 1957.
Nikolay Kosyakov is a retired Russian road cyclist. He won the 1985 Rás Tailteann, Ireland's most prestigious cycling race.