Experienced All Human Velorevolution rider Richard Maes is still going strong. Adam Moynihan chats to the accomplished Killarney cyclist to find out more about his latest showing at the World Championships.

Richard, congratulations on your recent success. Can you tell me a bit about the competition you were taking part in?

Thanks Adam. Yeah, it was the World Championships for Cyclocross in Ipswich. I came fourth in the masters section. It was there last year as well and I came fifth, so I knew the course and I was able to train more specifically for it.

So, was the goal heading into this year’s competition to finish higher than fifth?

Yeah, I was hoping for that, but last year there were Covid implications as well. A couple of the big fellas from Belgium and Holland didn’t show up. They did show up this year so I wasn’t quite sure how it would go. But it went well on the day, thankfully.

Can you explain how the sport works?

It’s a cross between mountain biking and road; the bike looks like a road bike with mountain bike wheels. It’s done off-road and there’s a lot of running involved and lot of man-made obstacles like stairs that you have to run up and down. They bring in a couple of hundred tonnes of sand for the course and make you go through it. Skilful riders can ride through it, others can’t and they just have sand in their shoes for the rest of the day. Some courses are hilly, some are flat.

As for the event, it a one-hour race that consists of a three-kilometre track. If a lap takes 10 minutes, they say you have six laps to do. They try to get it as close to the hour as possible.

It sounds pretty physical?

Yeah, it’s the hardest event you can do in terms of cycling. It’s the most demanding. My heartrate would be about 185 average for the hour. It’s the same pain as a 5k running race if you’re trying do that as fast as you can for 20 minutes, except this lasts an hour. It’s the same intensity. There’s a lot of high intensity gym training and weight training.

Tell me about this recent event. Did everything go to plan?

Everything went smoothly enough. Conditions were cold but it was bone dry. Normally we’d have a load of muck to deal with! It ended up being the fastest race of the year.

There were six of us together for the whole race, really, and then it split into three and three with two laps to go. It stayed that way until the end. There was only 13 seconds between first and fifth. It was tight racing all day.

What’s next on the agenda?

The National Championships are on in Dundalk the second weekend of January and we’re finished then. It’d be nice to get a medal there. I was fourth last year so it would be good to go one better this time. After that we’ll be back into road training in March. I’ll be looking to do the Rás and all that craic again. No rest for the wicked!

How is the body holding up overall? Is training getting that bit harder with age?

Not yet! The recovery hasn’t slowed down that much thankfully but I’d say if I did stop for a while and tried to get back going, I’d feel it. I’m training 50 weeks of the year. I’ll try and not get fat for another while!