Paul McQuaid

Paul McQuaid is an Irish cyclist who has represented Ireland in several global competitions.

The McQuaid family and cycling

McQuaid comes from a successful Irish road bicycle racing family, with his father Jim and uncles being top Irish cyclists. His brothers Kieron and Pat as well as his cousin John McQuaid were also successful cyclists in Ireland and represented Ireland in the World Cycling road race championships and in the Olympic road race. Paul's brother Pat is now the President of the Union Cycliste Internationale. [cite web| url=http://www.celtictrails.com/html/ct_about.shtml |title=The McQuaid family's involvement in Irish cycling |publisher=Celtictrials |accessdate=2007-07-09]

Cycling career

McQuaid represented Ireland in the 1989 World's Championships in Chambery, France. In 1991 he represented Ireland in the Hapoel Games in Israel. 1992 saw him represent Ireland in the Franco-Belge, Tour of Normandie, Tour of Europe and Giro del Region in Italy. An injury knocked him out for all of 1993 but he came back in 1994 with rides in the Grand Prix de Liberatzione and Giro del Regioni in Italy and a credible fourth place in Ireland's National Tour, the Rás Tailteann. He then made the national team for the World's in Bogotá, Colombia in 1995. In 1995 he won the FBD Rás Tailteann. [ cite book | last = Daly| first = Tom | title = The Rás – The Story Of Ireland’s Unique Bike Race | publisher = The Collins Press | date = 2003 | id = ISBN 1-903464-37-4 ] He also won Ireland's toughest one day race the Shay Elliott Memorial Race in 1988.

Celtic Trails

Paul has been running cycling tours in the west of Ireland since 1997 and goes by the name of Celtic Trails. His website has won several awards and was voted, 'the best, most comprehensive, user-friendly and professional cycle tour website on the Net'.

Community involvement

Paul and his significant other Kelly Ratchford are setting up a charity to refurbish old bicycles in Dublin, Ireland and send them in containers to Africa. They have found a building in the old part of the docklands and intend to look for EU and Government funding to set this charity up. A major part of what they hope to do, apart from the benefits of sending containerloads of bicycles to Africa, is to educate local kids on how to fix and maintain bikes. They are also setting up Ireland's first coffee shop/bike shop in the Docklands in Dublin, right on the river Liffey.

References

External links

* http://www.celtictrails.com