I was into cycling for years and was putting up decent mileages in jeans and tee shirt attire, but it wasn't until 1996 that I finally joined Clann Eireann when I was taking a year out from university. Chris Greene was working in McCabrey's where I upgraded the components and wheels on my old heavy bike and got it into reasonable shape for racing.

Chris spoke at great length about what to do, where to go, how to go about joining the club. Go over to Portadown the following evening, head for St John's Chapel and sign up for the time trial. Which I did, and completed my first mid-week club Ten coming in at 27:01. This was in the days when only the big shots had time trial bikes or turbo trainers, and if anyone got a 21 it was the talk of the town.

That's where I started making a great group of friends that endures to this day, and I've always wished I'd done it years before. John and Maurice Bann-Lavery, Andy Burns, Andy Smith, Declan Brown, and the late lamented Decky Nash.

Dave Simpkins started racing at roughly the same time as me, so it was good not to be the only beginner. Andy Smith and Andy Burns were around my standard so we'd always finish close together, and Chris and John Bann (in his junior days) were the strongest men in the club at the time. The view from the pack was always of John Bann in the sprint for every prime. Chris was always away to the toughest races the country had on offer, including the Rás.

A personal highlight of 1996 was the Maracycle. In the month before that, boys like Arthur Murray and all the Road Club riders would be showing up for the Sunday run already with 20 miles up. We went out on the town in Dublin that night and the lads were giving me a hard time for drinking red wine. We ended up in some club in Swords with the boys standing over a table with their heads in their hands ready to collapse from exhaustion, so it was back to the B&B with Decky -- always full of rascality -- playing a game that involved keeping me out of the place. I tried to climb in through the window of his room but he replied by closing it on my arms repeatedly. I had to give up eventually and go in through the door, and at breakfast the next morning I don't think he remembered how the marks had gotten on to my forearm.

It took just over six hours to ride back to Belfast in a headwind, and some of the day's suffering was undoubtedly down to the previous night's shenanigans.

I moved back to England at the end of that season and later from there to the USA. I'm still racing in California to this day, recovering from the Central Coast Circuit Race in Monterey as I write this. But I always keep in touch with the Clann and still feel proud when one of our boys makes the sports headlines. The club has a long history, and since Lurgan has always been a bit of a hotbed of cycling, I'm sure it will have a long future.

Eamonn Gormley