Damien needs support to stay in the Rás
It’s almost a year since Mullingar man Damien Shaw received his Paralympic bronze medal as sighted pilot to blind cyclist, Andrew Fitzgerald, but if anything, this year is almost as busy as last.
Happily, it’s been a successful year for the 29-year-old whose competitive cycling career began three years ago, and who is now Ireland’s second-highest rated cyclist: he’s now part of the AquaBlue cycling team that has been cleaning up at races the length of the country since the beginning of January.
“We’ve had a very successful year to date: we’ve won the Tour of Ulster and Rás Mumhan in Kerry,” says Damien.
The Rás Mumhan victory was Damien’s own, and is part of a tally of 12 wins the team has had out of the 15 or 16 races this year, giving them a season unmatched by any other team here ever. Damien also won the Ben McKenna Memorial race in Dublin in April.
“With AquaBlue, the team work aspect has been so impressive: not alone have we had the 12 big wins this year, but out of the four different riders, we’re all good, and we’re all capable of winning,” he says.
The Rás Mumhan victory was particularly sweet for AquaBlue, given that the sponsors are in Cork, and there was an appetite from them to see their team nab what is one of Munster’s most competitive cycling events.
After the eight-day 1,200km Rás around Ireland (this week), he’s abroad once a month for the following four months as pilot for Andrew Fitzgerald, taking part in competitions in Italy, Spain, Belgium and in September, the biggie, the World Championships in Canada.
It’s tough going – not just the immense and intense training involved, but the financial strain as well. Damien was delighted when a number of businesses from around this area came together to provide him with some sponsorship this year – but as an amateur, he still has the same bills to pay as the rest of us; not to mention the costs of keeping up to date with equipment.
By profession, Damien is a firefighter, but his cycling career necessitates taking a lot of time off work. There’s no job that offers the sort of paid holidays that he would need to enable him compete when he wished, and still draw a salary, so much of the time, he has to take unpaid leave for the races, particularly when they are abroad.
“It’s a very expensive sport – not only to buy the stuff, but also, you sacrifice so much time training and competing that you are sacrificing any form of career – and then you are away so much, you are losing out on earnings.”
He’s certainly not doing it for the money: “If I wanted to make money, I would just stay at work,” he says.
“The hard part is taking time off work, being away so much. I have to take unpaid leave, and just really, it’s all down to the goodwill of the other firefighters, who are all very helpful – and of course there’s Steve Franzoni of Outdoor Escape: he has me on the best bike you can get in Ireland, a Storck.”
Due to his commitments to AquaBlue, Damien no longer cycles with Lakeside Wheelers, and while grateful for all he gained as a member of the club, he’s enjoying being part of AquaBlue, a team that works on strategy development as well as the physical side, and that benefits from having a somewhat older age profile than some other teams, meaning that combined, the pack have a wealth of experience to share for their mutual benefit.
A big question for Damien is whether to give the Rio Olympics a shot.
Over the coming months, he intends putting some serious thought into the question of whether he will, next year, go down the route of attempting to qualify. At the last Olympics, Ireland’s only qualifier was Martin Irvine – winner in 2010 and 2011 of the Mullingar Criterium. Significantly, Damien took silver in that 2011 race.
But that’s a decision he doesn’t have to make just yet, and in the meantime, it’s head to the handlebars in preparation for May 19 when the Rás starts.