So, I’m doing some more piggybacking on Chris Baldwin’s credentials. This time I talk with David O’Loughlin, Navigator’s pro.

DS: So, are you ready for the Tour of California?

DO: Yes, we’ve been checking out some of the stages for the last week or so. So, we should know a lot of the roads.

DS: Did you put your sunscreen on, you’ve got to watch our for that California sun…

DO: (laughs) I do. Particularity this time of year.

DS: So, you won the Mengoni race in Central Park last year…

DO: That’s right, yeah.

DS: You won it from a group of four, is that right?

DO: Yeah, it might have been 4 or 5 guys I don’t remember exactly.

DS: Did Marty Nothstein go to that race also?

DO: Yes, Marty was in the group that was right behind us. Almost caught us right on the line. I think he won the sprint out of that group.

DS: Yeah, I know he’s been trying to win that race for a long time, was he mad at you?

DO: (laughs) He didn’t say anything.

DS: Do a lot of people try to get a copy of your Irish Champion’s jersey from you?

DO: Yeah, I think there’s been quite a lot of interest in the jersey, it seems to be popular in certain areas.

DS: How did you win the Irish Championship last year?

DO: It was a big group that got away pretty early in the race and then it split towards the end of the race, and there were three guys away: myself, Mark Scanlon, and David McCann. And then there was a lot of attacking, and I just got away on the last climb.

DS: It seems like you win from breaks a lot of times. When breakaway riders have a lot of breaks together they tend to develop maybe dislike or rivalries, or when certain guys show up in the break the other riders will shut it down. Do you have any rivals you’ve got into break with and you see them coming and you go “Oh, no not again!”

DO: No, not really. Some of the guys I may know may be faster sprinters, so I know I can’t just bring those guys to the finish at the sprint. I don’t really have any major rivals that way.

DS: No big feuds or anything like that?

DO: (laughs) No big feuds.

DS: See, because I’m usually the guy that gets up to the break and then everyone says, “Oh, no, not him!” and then they quit. That’s usually my role in a race.

DO: (laughs)

DS: How much time do you spend in Ireland during the year?

DO: I might spend a fair bit of my time in Ireland. I pretty much would be based in Ireland the majority of the year and then the rest of the year I would be traveling, or staying in America between races. The program with the Navigators we do quite a few races all over the world so it’s sort of hard to base yourself in one particular place.

DS: How would you consider the training in Ireland to be?

@##=#<1,L>@##=#DO: It’s good roads. Maybe we don’t have long climbs, long Tour de France type climbs, but we have some good rolling roads. The only other thing is the weather might be a bit wet.

DS: Bring your raincoat, huh?

DO: Yeah, you got to have waterproof shoes and a raincoat.

DS: What would you consider the state of Irish cycling to be? You had Stephen Roche and Sean Kelly and then there was sort of a drop off, but now it seems like there’s more Irish racers internationally. Do you think it’s on the up rise?

DO: Oh, for sure. Obviously, that period you just mentioned with Kelly and Roche, when they were winning Tour de Frances and all the classics and everything and then there was a huge drop, and the standard of the sport was particularly bad in Ireland but in recent years there’s been a lot of good work done and there’s a lot of good young riders coming through at the moment – guys racing in the professional ranks such as Mark Scanlon and Ciarán Power and myself on Navigators. And I think there are two new division three teams this year and Sean Kelly has put his weight behind a team and it’s a development team.

DS: Did a lot of Irish cyclist growing up idolizing Sean Kelly and Stephen Roche? Did that put a lot of people out on bikes like it did in America with Greg LeMond and then later Lance Armstrong making the sport more popular? Do you think they had same effect on a lot of kids?

DO: It definitely had a huge effect back in the time when Kelly and Roche were in the height of their careers, it had huge numbers put into the sport. At the under-16 championships you’d have 250 kids racing, but then after they retired there was a huge drop off, and maybe at the time Irish racing didn’t do enough or put enough structure in place, but they’re working good at the moment and they’ve got some good structure, so it’ back on the rise again.

DS: Everybody probably started hurling again…

DO: Yeah, hurling or playing rugby or something.

DS: What’s up with hurling? I’ve seen a couple of hurling – is it matches? Man, that’s a brutal sport!

DO: It’s a good sport – it’s fast – it’s rough as well, so…

DS: Yeah, they’re just whacking each other with those sticks! Dear Lord, no protective equipment at all.

DO: I wouldn’t get involved in that now, but it’s a cool sport.

DS: How did you come into cycling yourself? What was your first bike? Your first race? How is it different in Ireland for someone coming up?

DO: I think I was maybe 13 or 14 and the local club would have some training weekends, and my neighbor was involved in them. I just got dragged along to them and had good fun. I was hooked from there and decided that I’d train weekends. And that was that.

DS: Were you successful right away?

DO: I think within a year or so I’d won a national championship at under age level – so, reasonably successful. As I wasn’t a particularly strong sprinter I didn’t win as much as a lot of other kids at the time.

DS: I hear that Ed’s going out on your training rides. I know that Ed still races because I see him quite a bit at park races in New York, does Ed think that if one of you guys drop out, he’s going to suit up and race in the Tour of California?

DO: (laughs) No I don’t think so; I think he’s seen enough of the climbs this week to know that it’s going to be a hard, hard week. I think he prefers the nice, new team car.

DS: I think it makes a big difference when your director is an ex-racer – or in Ed’s case – an active racer, what do you think about that? Do you think it helps?

DO: For sure, he has a better idea of what’s going on in the race, and what’s gong on with our bodies and when things go wrong or something like that. It’s good, it’s positive.

DS: He’d better not train too much or he’ll be too damn tired and drive the car off the road.

DO: I don’t know how he’s getting over his jet lag; he just got back from Malaysia. And the next day he went out and did 4 hours with us.

DS: He’s going to have to have coffee everywhere, in the car, in water bottles, IV’s perhaps.

DO: (laughs) Yeah.

DS: What do you guys think your chances are in the Tour of California, are you looking for stage wins yourself, personally?

DO: I think it’s going to be a very high standard of race and it’s important to a lot of teams, and there will be a very high caliber of riders there. For me, I think I’ll be looking for a stage win and hopefully be looking for a good ride in the time trial as well.

DS: Is there any stage that you see that might suit you?

DO: There’s a couple but it sort of hard to bank on one stage because you never know what goes on on the road and the tactics involved.

DS: It’ll be kind of new mix having the European teams over here rather than racing against them over there…

DO: Yes, it should be an exciting race and I think we have a really strong team here this week and everyone is going really well. We’re looking forward to starting in and getting some results.