Clare’s Ella Crowned National Cycling Champion

Derrick Lynch

In Clare, we love our traditional music, but we love our cycling as well.

It might not be the exact sentiment expressed by Ella Doherty last weekend, but like her fellow Magpie Anthony Daly, she too was crowned a national champion.

The Leaving Cert student produced a stunning sprint finish to cross the line first in the National Junior Women’s championships in Limerick, in what has already been a historic year for her.

Her performance in the recent Clare championships have been identified as the perfect barometer of her form coming into last weekend as she secured third place overall in a high quality field, becoming the first woman to claim the bronze medal in the race.

Ella outlined that while she felt confident coming into the race, the win was unexpected.

“It was a big surprise to be honest. I knew I was on form but I hadn’t raced a lot of those girls in a long time. The standard was quite high and it was a very competitive field so I was a bit shocked to win it. It was a 60km race but there were quite a lot of breaks during it with people sprinting off the front. I was doing a lot of work during the race to cover the breaks so I wasn’t sure if I would have the speed at the end. The finish was on the hill so it came to that hill sprint. I had that confidence to go for it because I had come third in the Clare championships and that was on a hill finish too. I knew I had that back up but at the same time the rest of them were very strong so I was just really happy to come around and get the win. It was special for me because it was the national event so it was certainly one of the biggest moments of my career so far” she noted.

Competing on the big stage is nothing new for Ella, with her background in triathlons leading to her feature at Olympic test events in Tokyo during the summer of 2019. She also travelled to Lausanne in Switzerland for the World Triathlon Grand Finals, along with competing at a number of European championships.

In an ironic twist, the impact of Covid-19 meant that time in the swimming pool, which was her primary sport, was limited with triathlon events also being pulled. It led to her taking out what she described as an “old bike at home” and taking a renewed focus on cycling. She also feels that competing against men in some of her events has helped her to become a stronger competitor.

“I started triathlons when I was 12 or 13 so I am cycling since then but swimming would have been my main event and I would not have been strong on the bike. It is only in the past year that I have started improving in that side of it. There is not a lot of women in Clare who ride competitively and a lot of the league races are the men’s so competing against them has really brought me on I feel. They do not cut me any slack so I have to really hang on but I think it has made me stronger as a result” she said.

Ella represents the Limerick based Greenmount Cycling Academy, with Kilrush native Vincent Gleeson being one of the founders of the club. She says that team element at the club is something she enjoys being part of.

“I was originally a swimmer and I did a bit of cross country running at school so it just came together really and progressed over the years. I was always interested in sport. Swimming and triathlons in general can be quite individual but there is more of a team element in cycling which is enjoyable. There is that social side to it and everyone is really supportive. We are getting a good women’s team going in Greenmount so there are four or five of us coming along and we are getting stronger” she stated.

With a national title now secured, it is a very different goal that Ella has set her sights on for the next few months. The former Colaiste Mhuire student is currently studying for the Leaving Cert at Limerick Tutorial College, amid what she describes as “very unpredictable times”. She says having sport as a release from stress is a great outlet.

“Some days when the weather looks terrible you can be slow about getting out in it but once you do it really helps to reduce the stress levels. The dream would be to represent Ireland at the Olympics but I will see how things go. I don’t want to put pressure on myself, particularly this year. The Nationals were really my main event and there are not too many more on the horizon due to Covid-19. I will be taking a break from it now for a while and focusing on the Leaving Cert” she said.

Meanwhile Greenmount Cycling Club founder Vincent Gleeson had plenty reason to be proud of last weekend’s achivement as his club rider and fellow Clare competitor Ella powered home.

The Kilrush man helped established the club, which is based at Limerick racecourse in Patrickswell in 2012. Since then it has grown from strength to strength with cyclists from Clare, Limerick, Tipperary and Galway among their membership.

Gleeson outlined that having the national championships at a local course in Newcastlewest. Co Limerick was also a bonus.

“We were lucky that the championships were run at all this year given all that has gone on so it was great to have them, even if they were a few months later than the original date in June. It was Munster’s turn to host the event so it was great to be in a place where Ella would have been familiar with the course” he noted.

He praised her impeccable timing in producing the final challenge which would see her sweep to the front, and compared her skills to those of Tour de France hero Sam Bennett. He also outlined that a virtual initaitive during the Covid-19 lockdown played its part in making sure everyone was ready for action when restrictions were lifted.

“Cycling Ireland set up a virtual racing system during lockdown. You connected to computer and go in virtual race. There were 12 weeks of it on a Saturday morning and everyone was racing together, but apart. One race had over 1000 people around the country taking part. Our club Greenmount won the overall league and Ella was one of our main scorers, consistently taking first or second in her category every week. It was a great way to keep fitness up and stay active during lockdown” he noted.

Gleeson also outlined that her form from the Clare championship was also going to bode well for her tilt at national honours.

“We knew the form was coming good when she took third in the Clare championship. It is unheard of for a girl to finish in third when everyone is in together. She set off with a bunch of about 20 men and just dropped them all to take the bronze. We knew from training with her that her form was coming and fact she was concentrating so much on her cycling led to huge progress” he said.