{"id":2880,"date":"2012-03-17T23:51:04","date_gmt":"2012-03-17T23:51:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bmxireland.ie\/?p=317"},"modified":"2012-03-17T23:51:04","modified_gmt":"2012-03-17T23:51:04","slug":"wyer-speaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.offroadcyclingireland.ie\/wordpress\/2012\/03\/17\/wyer-speaks\/","title":{"rendered":"Wyer Speaks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently Eamonn Wyer<\/strong> did an interview with Cycling Ireland … here’s what he had to say …<\/p>\n

PLEASE SEE THE\u00a0ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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Club:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Epic, I\u2019m a secret mountain-biker, don\u2019t tell anyone.<\/p>\n

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Role:\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>One of the backbones at the Ratoath BMX facility<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 that\u2019s very kind, Shay MacNally is the main man in Ratoath, I\u2019m a willing helper. I\u2019m trying to grow BMX racing and I\u2019ll work with whoever can help that goal. Ratoath is now well established, the local parents are brilliant, they and Shay run it and have helped make it the biggest and best cycling club in the country.<\/p>\n

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How did you get involved with cycling?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I loved bikes from an early age, kept breaking them when I landed, so loved the arrival of BMX bikes, they were solid! First raced in about 1983\/84 got the bug. The most exciting thing you can do on a bike is race 7 other riders over a BMX track, it\u2019s still a massive adrenalin buzz and hasn\u2019t changed a bit.<\/p>\n

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Who is your cycling role model, and why?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a real hard one, I\u2019ve never really had any sporting heroes, I admired Kelly n Roche\u2019s efforts in the 80\u2019s, but roadies don\u2019t count ; ) I\u2019ve always believed you should do it yourself, why not?\u00a0\u00a0if they can do it so can you. But seeing as I can\u2019t do it anymore my new heroes are 5 year old Corey Waller (future superstar) and Kelv1n Batey (current superstar). Now both of these guys should be carrying the Olympic Torch when it comes here, Kelv1n passing it to Corey would be proper, so let\u2019s make that happen.<\/p>\n

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What was your favourite race\/venue?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Semperit BMX Track, Ballyfermot. Sadly gone, great race venue, built beside the social club of the Semperit Tyre Factory by the employees whose kids were BMX\u2019ers, those guys must have had some respect to pull that off, how\u2019s that for social responsibility? You don\u2019t see that anymore. The races every Wednesday night and Sundays made winners out of lots of riders.<\/p>\n

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What inspired you to create the Ratoath BMX facility?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 2008 Olympics saw BMX added to the menu, it\u2019s about time BMX got the recognition it deserves, it\u2019s the best sport in the world by a long way. I think it\u2019s addition was a major boost for the games the Olympic Movement should be grateful, one day the I.O.C. might even help Irish BMX out. I knew its addition to the Olympics gave BMX the legitimacy it deserves and would raise people interests. Now it has as much right to funding as 100M, Swimming, Boxing etc\u2026 more than Rugby or GAA.\u00a0\u00a0I knew the bang for the buck would be off the scale with BMX but I hadn\u2019t counted on the lack of support and getting the run around. But what kept us going was knowing people would love this sport and in my mind I was seeing the faces of the Finnegans, the Gilmers and Brian Connors who were the organisers of BMX in the 80\u2019s when we regularly had 600 kids at a race, knowing what they did for us and how hard they worked I didn\u2019t want to let them down, otherwise we would have been failures and learned nothing during our lives from that first golden period of Irish BMX.<\/p>\n

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BMX is the buzz word at the moment, what is the biggest challenge for BMX in Ireland?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Getting tracks built, I\u2019d like to pretend its not hard but you need committed volunteers, you can\u2019t build a track on promises and good intentions. You also need a bit of land (1-2 football pitch sizes is plenty) and the small matter of some funding, 50K is sufficient if you buy wisely.<\/p>\n

Getting councils, government and sport bodies interested is hard work. But I\u2019m starting to \u201cfeel the love\u201d from Cycling Ireland lately so hopefully the relationships we are building will be worthwhile and effective.\u00a0\u00a0Also it seems BMX Freestyle and Skateboarding will join the Olympics so that will be massive for the scrote army!<\/p>\n

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The payback for building BMX tracks is massive, Ratoath is barely 6 months old and only open since November and has 450+ members, the next biggest club in Ireland open since the 1980\u2019s hasn\u2019t got 300, so I\u2019ll give all the small clubs in Ireland an open invite to come and see how to attract youth members. Most of our members are youths, the end results will be hundreds even thousands of kids hooked on the best cycle sport known to mankind, they will eventually take over MTB , road racing etc and dominate those sports and win lots of medals, accolades etc and bring glory and economic prosperity to Ireland in the process, we\u2019ll raise a nation of winners and risk takers and grow old having decent sports to watch on TV knowing the streets are safe as the scobies are all tired form BMXing.<\/p>\n

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What is the key to helping BMX take off in Ireland \u2013 e.g. media coverage? More facilities? More volunteers etc? Funding?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Building one track is all it took, as the film went \u201cbuild it and they will come\u201d so true! People can\u2019t get enough of this, imagine what we could do with proper funding ! I reckon we could build a BMX track in every town in Ireland with over 5,000 population, that\u2019s about 80 towns and easily have 50,000 kids BMX\u2019ing. Cost 4M and pay back is 20M\/year on year for life, it\u2019s that simple!<\/p>\n

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The key is volunteers and funding! But I\u2019ll be happy when we get to 7 tracks of a high quality but each one has to be better than the one before!<\/p>\n

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Social media has been great! So easy to connect and share, various websites TwentyInch.ie, Biking Dirty, Stiky Bottle, Uberdog, even Irish Cycling gave us a mention! The Irish Times, Sunday Times articles, Radio Nova – what a class act!\u00a0word of mouth, PJ Gallagher, Richie Byrne and his big moustache covered mouth are all excellent, they all bring something special.\u00a0\u00a0Our sponsors have been great and we couldn\u2019t have done it without the cash they gave us.<\/p>\n

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There are now several BMX venues in Ireland \u2013 describe the process of designing and building the track? How long did it take from beginning to completion?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not exactly true, there are two BMX tracks in Ireland, Cherry Orchard Indoor \u2013 what an explosion of interest in the indoor, the track is set up for kids and beginners and the experienced riders love it too and it has a roof, it\u2019s going to be massive and is pushing all the right buttons. Plans are to upgrade soon to make the track even more appealing as the riders are learning really quick!\u00a0\u00a0Liam Collins and the Cherry Orchard crew are fast becoming part of the bedrock of BMX and appealing to a whole new generation and neighbourhood of potential shredders.<\/p>\n

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Ratoath should have taken 6 weeks, but took 6 months due to lack of funding, as riders joined we\u2019d buy a lorry load of material and work, then wait! We started in a field with 3 people, no money one digger and hope. As time went by the number helping grew, we let the kids ride the bits we built and made them do some work in exchange.\u00a0\u00a0I think they learned a few new skills along the way, some days 50 turned up to work. During that period Shay and I wondered if anyone would be bothered and we reckoned we\u2019d be happy if 70 joined the club, seems we underestimate it too!<\/p>\n

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The design was copied from Manchester BMX Club as it\u2019s considered a good racers track and we wanted something competitive for all ability levels not something a few riders can excel on while the others fall off. We\u2019ve seen a 2 year old ride it on a\u00a0strider! So we got it almost right. We\u2019ll make it more challenging as the skill levels rise, that\u2019s the great thing about BMX tracks it doesn\u2019t take much to modify them.<\/p>\n

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What is the pathway for a budding BMX cyclist who turns up at the BMX track in Ratoath?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Come in, introduce yourself, fill out an application form, let the organisers see if you can ride and aren\u2019t a danger to yourself or others and then go and get some air! But be quick rumours are the club will close membership at 500 and its at 440 now, they join quicker than we can register them with CI.<\/p>\n

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You can also have a look at Cherry Orchard, they hire bikes and gear at great prices, they have a roof and toilets! Well worth a visit you won\u2019t be disappointed.<\/p>\n

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All about the kids …<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently Eamonn Wyer did an interview with Cycling Ireland … here’s what he had to say … PLEASE SEE THE\u00a0ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE   Club:\u00a0Epic, I\u2019m a secret mountain-biker, don\u2019t tell anyone.   Role:\u00a0\u00a0One of the backbones at the Ratoath BMX facility\u00a0\u2013 that\u2019s very kind, Shay MacNally is the main man in Ratoath, I\u2019m a willing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[236,227],"class_list":["post-2880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bmx","tag-featured-news","tag-latest-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.offroadcyclingireland.ie\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.offroadcyclingireland.ie\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.offroadcyclingireland.ie\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.offroadcyclingireland.ie\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.offroadcyclingireland.ie\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2880"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.offroadcyclingireland.ie\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2900,"href":"http:\/\/www.offroadcyclingireland.ie\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2880\/revisions\/2900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.offroadcyclingireland.ie\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.offroadcyclingireland.ie\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.offroadcyclingireland.ie\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}