Time proves no trial for Patsy

Last month Navan Road Club staged their time-trial championships at Batterstown. Among those who took part was Patsy Fitzsimons, a man who continues to defy the march of time.

Next March Fitzsimons will celebrate his 75th birthday yet he has no plans to end what has become a remarkably protracted career in cycling - a sport that helped to save his life.

Regularly during the cycling season Fitzsimons not only takes part in competitive races, but consistently finishes well ahead of opponents who are 20 or 25 years younger. Not content to take part in charity events and leisurely spins, the ageless Fitzsimons races to win.

And not only does he take part in events that can vary from anything from 10 to 50 miles in length, he also cycles to the venues were the races start. He completes the race and then cycles home again.

He regularly sets off from his house in Navan on Sunday mornings to places such as Kentstown or Batterstown and returns late that evening. For races further a-field he usually travels by car with a colleague. Earlier this year Fitzsimons even set a new Irish record for his 'age standard' in a 10-mile time-trial in Kiltale, completing the course in a highly impressive 28 minutes, 13 seconds. The previous record was 29.08. He covered the 10 mile time-trial in Batterstown a few weeks ago in 30.13.

Once he gets underway and the pedals start to go around he is firmly focused on getting to the finishing line competing against the course and the clock. 'You would be fairly shifting, you could be going at 25 miles an hour on parts of the course, 16 or 17 on other parts, depending on whether you"re going down a hill or not,' he added.

The indomitable septuagenarian doesn"t own a car and regularly cycles close to a 100 miles a week in all kinds of weather as part of a disciplined, testing training regime. There are few things he likes better than to take out his bike and feel the wind in his face during one of his less-than-sedate spins.

He has given a lot to cycling and it has cushioned him from some of the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. The sport helped him survive the kind of horrific, traumatic event that is every parent"s nightmare.

Eight years ago his daughter Caroline tragically died in a traffic accident. She was just 33. He says the support he received from his colleagues in Navan Road Club and the cycling fraternity in general were invaluable in helping him survive those dark days. 'The boys in the club looked after me very well that time.

It was great to be at the cycling then because it brought me around, it saved me. The club and the sport has been a great help to me over the years,' he said. Originally from Ardbraccan, Fitzsimons first started cycling in the 1950s.

He gave it up for years before he returned to the saddle again in 1978. Since then he hasn"t looked back and the start of every cycling season brings with it a tingle of anticipation and a reawakening of that old competitive edge that shows little sign of diminishing.

The list of events Fitzsimons has taken part in this year make for impressive reading. He was third in the 50-mile age standard championships in Kentstown and fourth in the 45-mile Sonny Cullen Memorial race in Batterstown, but they were just two events out of five or six.

They were veteran competitions, catering for riders from 40 up. In club league races Fitzsimons competes against cyclists of all ages. Invariably, he is the oldest cyclist taking part and his efforts usually ensure that he finishes well ahead of much younger men who are left trailing in his slipstream.

He says there is no big secret behind his longevity. He doesn"t have any special diet, no herbal concoction to sustain him. The one restriction is that he eats little before a race and the absence of alcohol or nicotine are other huge positives.

Fitzsimons spent many years working in the production department in the Meath Chronicle. After "retiring" from there he picked up another job with a Navan-based company that manufactures hospital equipment.

He finally called it a day from the daily grind last spring. It has meant more time to train for his demanding cycling career. Already he is looking forward to the 2009 season. He says he is encouraged all the way by his wife Alice.

"Only for her I don"t think I would be still at it, she"s a great help to me. I don't know what I"d do,' he added. Her support helps him maintain a career in one of the most demanding sports of all. A sport in which he continues to defy the relentless march of time.