Profiles
Below you can find a selection of interviews with Orwell members past and present.
Lifetime Members
All members of the Roche family
- Stephen Roche
- Lawrence Roche
- Nicolas Roche
- ...
All members who completed the Tour de France
- Stephen Roche
- Lawrence Roche
- Nicolas Roche
- Paul Kimmage
- ...
Others
- Noel O'Neill
- Denis Gleeson
- ...
Club Person of the Year
Every year, the club vote to reward someone who's shown huge dedication to the club, who gives time and effort on multiple occasions, or in some way has been an outstanding volunteer. This person is awarded the Club Person of Year trophy to take home.
Previous winners
2023 Rás na mBan Team
2022
2021 Ronan Grimes 2020 Barry Redmond
2019 Paris Brest Paris Finishers
2018 2017 Michael Hanley 2016 Stephen O'Shea 2015 Ann Horan 2014 Stephen Ryan 2013 Brian McArdle 2012 ... 2011 Denis Gleeson 2010 Aideen Collard 2009 ...
Notable Members
Martin Hensey - The Orwell Flyer
Originally from Cork, Martin had a successful early sporting career as both a boxer and a wrestler, winning the National Cruiser weight title as a young man. He switched to cycling in 1947 with immediate success, placing second in his first road race and winning a number of time trials across 1947 and 48, culminating in his selection for the London Olympics in 1948.
Martin was one of the founding members of Orwell Wheelers CC, and continued his success in the new club's colours. In early March of '49 he became the Orwell's first 25 mile TT champion, winning with a time of 1'02'05", and followed just a few days later with our first ever open race win.
Foremost among the many race wins taken by Martin across the following two years were the National 25TT, 100TT and the first ever CRE National hillclimb title. Even though he was only involved in cycling for a very short few years he remains to this day one of our most successful racing members. He sadly passed away in 2014.
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Henry Whelan
Another early member, he now has an IVCA race held in his honour every year after passing away a few years ago. The below is taken from William Parnell's profile of Henry while the latter served as chairman of the IVCA (http://homepage.eircom.net/~thevets/henryprofile.htm).
Born in Dublin and reared in Drimnagh, Henry did not come from a family with any particular background in cycling. He started cycling in 1948 at the age of 15, on a Hercules bicycle purchased for him by his uncle for the princely sum of 9/0s/0d. It was a bit of a Hire Purchase agreement between Henry and his uncle, because Henry spent 18 months paying back the price of the bike. Henry, like most young lads of the day, was working by the age of 16.
Henry joined the newly-formed Orwell Wheelers in 1948. He up-graded his bike and straight away he was racing and touring with the club. In 1949, at the age of 16, he rode the Orwell Wheelers 12 Hour TT Championship and finished second, covering "204 miles and 209 perches" according to the inscription on the medal. Whatever way you measure it, it was a long distance to ride in 12 hours, especially at such a young age! The same year, Henry competed in the first ever Dun Laoghaire Grand Prix.
In the Dining Room of Henry's Walkinstown home hangs a picture of him racing in Lansdowne Road in 1951 against some of the top names of the day - Jim McQuaid, Jack Ryan and Noel Tully. He was asked to fill-in for a rider from England who failed to show up, to make up the numbers in the kilo. Always obliging, Henry took to the start line and duly proceeded to not only qualify for the final, but to win the event outright in a tight sprint finish! There was further success on the grass for Henry in 1951, as he won the National Championships at 14; Mile, took the Silver medal for Second place at 12; Mile and finished Third in the 3 Mile Championships.
In 1955, Henry married his sweetheart, Margaret and reared 2 sons and a daughter and, in the late 1960s, Henry started his own business in the ladies clothing trade. This meant he dropped out of the cycling scene.
In the 1980s, He was offered two bicycles in part payment by a local business and, as Henry's son was looking for a bike around that time, he accepted the bicycles. This led to him going out for spins with a neighbour and IVCA member, Dick Walsh. He was bitten by the bug again, although running his business meant that he still had little time for training and it was often difficult to get to evening races. However, racinMembership patternsg was, in Henry's words, "great therapy from work." He joined Orwell Wheelers again, as well as the Vets.
Henry retired from work in 1996 and this gave him more time to ride his bike, clocking up runs in the region of 50 miles when he's not racing. He describes himself as a "State Sponsored Pro.", funded by the Department of Social Welfare's Pensions Office.
On the bike, one of Henry's proudest moments was winning the IVCA League in 1997. The results sheets for 2001 show that Henry is still getting up in the sprints, and consistently beating men who are years younger than him despite a plate in his hip. He will always be remember for his modesty despite his talent, and his encouragement of newer members.
Stephen Roche
Probably our most famous member, Stephen Roche is one of only two men to have achieved the Triple Crown of the GIro d'Italia, Tour de France and World Championships in one year - 1987. Before that, he was coached by Noel O'Neill and won the Junior Champs in 1977 and the Rás Tailteann in 1979. His palmares also features Tour de Corse, Paris-Nice, Tour de Romandie (three times), the Critérium International (twice), Tour of the Basque Country, Four Days of Dunkirk, amongst many more.
His son Nicolas Roche is also a member, but currently rides for Team Sky in the professional peloton. The club hold the Stephen Roche GP every June in Dundrum to honour his contribution to Irish cycling.
Laurence Roche
Brother to Stephen Roche, Laurence is one of only eight Irish riders to have competed in the Tour de France. Laurence rode in 1991 for the Tonton Tapis team. Previously he had ridden as a professional for Carrera Jeans-Vagabond.
He has also competed in the Rás as recently as 2008, and is still active in the cycling world, running a company specialising in the Bike to Work scheme called BikeIT.
![](/images/docs/2014/laurence-roche.jpg)
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- Written by Brian Mc
With the Rás dominating the weekend racing, we thought it an appropriate time to catch up with one of last year's Men of the Rás, Diarmuid Collins, and find out a bit more about the Limerick man.
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- Written by Brian Mc
Although we may never fully accept her until she gives up the triathlon lark, Rachel truly made her mark on cycling in the 2012 season, entering five events and taking first in each. Not only can she boast a 100% win record, between training she still found time to support the Orwell men's Rás team, get a top five placing at the Irish half distance Triathlon Championships, and bake delicious brownies for her fellow riders!
And on top of all that, she also managed to answer a few questions for Orwell readers. So to find out more about this amazing athlete, read on...
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- Written by Dave Mc
Next in line to be interviewed for our series of rider profiles was one of the stars of Orwell's last golden age in the 1980s, and now spends his time helping the next generation of stars to come through by helping to organise the club league, and this year's very successful Corkagh park youth league. Fresh from narrowly missing out on winning Cycling Ireland's volunteer of the year award, read on for five minutes with Damien Long...
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- Written by Brian Mc
Many of the previous pieces on orwellwheelers.org were written by the talented Mr Quigley, whose day job sees him rub shoulders with high calibre sportstars, from Olympic sailor Annalise Murphy to Scottish legend Graeme Obree. In his spare time, he can be found dishing out helpful tips to novice racers, usually after the finish line. In the following interview, we enjoyed turning the tables, and asking him the questions for once. Declan, for his part, was only too happy to give us five minutes... though it was more like fifty-five minutes really.
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- Written by Dave Mc
Our long running series of rider profiles makes a return this week after a lengthy break, starting off this week with an interview with our longest serving member, Noel O'Neill. A former National Champion at Road, Track and Time Trial, and having spent almost 60 years with the club through both the good years and the bad, Noel most definitely fits the description of club legend.