Sé O'Hanlon

Séamus "Sé" O'Hanlon also known as Shay O'Hanlon (born September 14, 1941 in Dublin, Ireland) is a former Irish amateur road racing cyclist. O'Hanlon was one of the top amateurs competing in Ireland in the 1960's and 1970's which can be seen up his record of four overall wins in Ireland's stage race the Rás Tailteann in 1962, 1965, 1966 and 1967. O'Hanlon was a member of the National Cycling Association (NCA), one of the two cycling associations in Ireland at that time and the association whose members were banned in competing by the UCI in the World Championships or the Olympic Games.

Specific race history

An important competition that O'Hanlon competed in was the Rás Tailteann. O'Hanlon dominated the race and wore the leader’s yellow jersey of the race for thirty six days and during his career he won twenty-four stage victories in the race. His first stage victory coming in 1960. The following year, he won three consecutive stages and then in 1962 he won the race. After his first Ras win in 1962, he was encouraged to go and race as an amateur in France. Although O'Hanlon had some difficulty racing with his NCA licence in France, he did compete well and had the choice to continue but decided to return to Ireland. Back to top form, O'Hanlon won the Rás on three consecutive occasions where he led the race from start to finish from 1965 to 1967. In the 1966 edition of the race O’Hanlon had to battle a French team which had a former professional who had competed the 1954 Tour de France Jean Bellay. Bellay finished second to O'Hanlon in the race. O'Hanlon’s rivals were Paddy Flanagan, Ben McKenna, Mike O'Donaghue, Jimmy Kennedy and John Dorgan. Although Sé never won the race again after 1967, he featured prominently in the race each year until the mid 1970’s. O'Hanlon wore the yellow jersey again in 1973 and kept riding the race ever year with his last Rás in 1984. The Ulster section of the NCA also organised a stage race called the Tour of Ulster and O'Hanlon also holds the record for the number of wins of that race too – he won four times in 1961, 1962, 1965 and 1966. During the 1970’s while still competing, O'Hanlon became the President of the NCA and was involved in the unification of the cycling associations in Ireland which paved the way for riders of all associations to ride in any of the races the respective organisations organised. The 1979 Rás Tailteann was the first race in which the three associations were able to compete together. The three cycling associations of Ireland eventually unified in 1987.

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