Hero’s welcome for World Champion cyclist Clifford

THE city’s cycling community turned out in force on Wednesday evening to give a rousing homecoming to Eoghan Clifford following his double gold medal haul at the UCI Para-Cycling Road World Championships in the United States last weekend.

Clifford’s achievement was all the more remarkable because he was only called up to the Irish team for the first time two days before they departed for Greenvile, South Carolina, for the championships.

A member of the Galway Bay Cycling Club, Clifford was only informed of his inclusion in the seven man Irish squad two weeks ago. He had just 48 hours to customise a time trial bike from Nigel’s Cycle Store on the Tuam Road before boarding the plane for South Carolina.

The 34-year old has raced competitively with Galway Bay CC for 15 years and admitted yesterday that he had far more experience of road racing before putting on an Irish jersey for the first time for the time trial last weekend.

“I have been racing quite a long time, but never wore an Irish jersey before,” he told City Sport yesterday. “I would have been the only one from the Galway club on the Irish team of seven and I had to beg my boss for the time off work at short notice!”

On Friday, he repelled the challenges of Sergey Ustinov (Russia) and Fabio Anobile (Italy) to win the C3 time trial. Clifford, an unknown quantity at this level, was one of the first cyclists onto the track and could watch the other competitors’ times. Gradually, it dawned that he was in contention for a coveted gold medal.

“The conditions were hot, but I knew when I started that I was going well, as I felt my legs were good,” he said. “I rode it well and I was happy when I got to the finishing line. I was one of the first ones off, because I wouldn’t have an international track record, so I was able to look at the other times coming in.

Full report in City Tribune