Cycling Reports

Geraldine Gill: The loneliness of a long distance cyclist

By Gerard Cromwell (Sept 8) If absence makes the heart grow fonder, then for Navan Avonmore cyclist Geraldine Gill it must be a case of 'out of sight, out of mind' when it comes to Irish people knowing her name.

As 24 year old Geraldine ousprinted Susan O'Meara Dublin Wheelers and Lorraine Manning IRC Usher, to win her second National Ladies Road Race Championship in Hilltown County Down on Sunday last, you could see the puzzled expressions on the faces of the cycling fraternity gathered at the finish line. "Who's the girl who won?" people whispered. "She's the French girl." came the answer.

So how can a girl from Jamestown, near Bohermeen be regarded as French? Well, it all started about four years ago, when a then 16 -year old Geraldine Gill decided to follow her brothers into the sport of cycling and joined Bohermeen Cycling Club. Soon the youngster was winning underage races and as she progressed into adulthood she realised that she wasn't getting enough competition in women's racing in Ireland and decided to make the move to France to further her cycling career.

"About 4 years ago, I went to France, to Velo Club Lannion in Brittany." she says, as she sits on the step of a house in sunny Hilltown, County Down, just after her latest victory. "You could say I really started racing when I went to France. I went because I wanted to progress to the highest level I could in cycling and the racing over here just wasn't good enough."

Geraldine leaves Ireland every January to race in France and doesn't come home until the end of the season in October. This year one of her main aims was the Olympic Road Race in Sydney, Australia. "I'm very disappointed not to be going." she says, the subject almost bringing a tear to her eye. "After the season I've put in … I started preparing last winter for the Olympics. I rode all the French Cup races to prepare. I don't see my family from one end of the year to another. They phone me every Sunday night. I train really hard over there. Whatever I win in races - that's my living. Luckily, I have Marnique and my coach Francois who let me stay in their house for nothing, and then the Irish Cycling Federation decide they don't want me to ride the Olympics and they send an American instead!" (Deirdre Murphy, a 41-year old American who qualifies through the parentage rule, will be Irelands representative in the women's Olympic Road Race, in Sydney this year.)

V.C Lannion is a small club in the North of France, but it allows Geraldine to race in a lot of stage races and to compete against the top women riders in the world - the competition she would have been facing in Sydney. "I've beaten Jeannie Longo (the top French woman) in some stage races, I've raced against the German number one Henka Kupfernagel, this week I will be riding against Leontien Van Moorsel (the Dutch no.1) in a stage race. I've raced against Geraldine Lowenguth, who finished third in the women's Tour De France last week, and Severines Desbouys, who won two stages, finished fourth overall and won the mountains jersey. I raced against her and beat her a couple of times this year."

When asked how her season has been going so far, Geraldine breaks into fluent French as she turns to her coach Francois Pichon who has joined her on one of her rare trips back home. "Geraldine has raced 26 times and been on the podium 21 times this season." Francois answers, "In a French Cup race this year, Geraldine finished second behind Joane Someribba, from Spain, who won both the women's Tour Of Italy and Tour De France this year!"

As we speak, we are surrounded by the rest of the Gill family, who had just minutes earlier swamped the eldest daughter in a family huddle, a scene reminiscent of a football team in Croke Park, after an All-Ireland victory. Mother Geraldine and father John are more out of breath with excitement at their daughters latest achievement in the world of cycling than Geraldine is herself. "We're very proud of her." Says Geraldine senior. "We miss her when she's away and when she comes home for the three months of the winter time she's just training and resting and training again. There's no such thing as dancing or pictures… nothing. It's the bike all the time!"
Geraldine's mid-season visit home was to be short lived. "I fly back to France tomorrow for a stage race on Wednesday, the Trophee D'or. It's a five day international race, with six stages." At this point her coach, Francois, intervenes. "Geraldine trains for fifteen to twenty hours every week. She races with V.C Lannion because she needs stage races to progress to the next level. Next year she will move to a bigger team and hopefully she will ride the women's Tour De France and maybe she will turn professional." His opinion of the Irish championship, which she had just won was "It was a bad race. Everybody was watching Geraldine and so it became very negative. Every time she attacked, she was chased down and so she had to wait for a sprint in the end."

Geraldine doesn't limit herself to racing against other women either, she's not afraid to mix it with the boys. "Once a month I try to race against the men to help me to progress. Last week I raced against sixty men and finished 28th, in a regional first and second category race." When she's not training, Geraldine helps out in the house of her coach Francois and his wife Marnique in the little village of Lannion. "I do the gardening, I cut the hedges, I help them with the new house they are building, I keep busy." When asked if she hopes to turn professional she replies with the enthusiasm of a child who has just been asked if she wants an ice-cream, "Next year I hope to move to a bigger team. I want to see how far I can go. If I can't go any higher then there's no point in continuing and if I do then I can become a pro!"

Maybe next year when Geraldine Gill from Jamestown turns up at the start of the National Road Race Championships, to defend her title and people ask "Who's that girl?" the reply will be different. Maybe it will be "Oh that's Geraldine Gill from Navan Road Club, she rode the women's Tour De France this year you know!"