EACH week Sun Racing talks to one of the top names in the sport to find out their secret love outside of racing.
Next up is former jockey, and recently retired agent to Frankie Dettori, Ray Cochrane on his love of cyclo-cross.
I have been fortunate enough to have a wonderful career in racing – first as a jockey, then as an agent to Frankie Dettori.
But by stepping down last month from my agent’s role, after 20 memorable years, I will have more time to pursue my great passion: cyclo-cross.
It is a sport that gives you a real adrenaline rush, a great buzz.
I took it up about five years ago. I was forced to retire as a jockey in 2000 after a light-aircraft crash in which Frankie was also injured and the pilot was sadly killed. I received head and neck injuries and, after that, jogging gave me horrendous headaches.
So I started doing a little mountain biking and road biking. Then, I went home to Northern Ireland and my brother, Ian, said he was going to cyclo-cross the next day – did I want to come?
I had never heard of it – but cyclo-cross involves racing a bike across along a rough track – woodlands, grass, steep hills – and you sometimes have to dismount and carry the bike over obstacles.
Anyway, I went along with my brother and I immediately thought: “This is a right craic, with all these lads cycling flat out and getting plastered in mud.”
Ian got off his bike and told me: “Give it a go – it’s the best fun you’ll ever have.”
So I got a bike for the next season and have been racing ever since. I am now in the over 60s class. Sometimes more than 100 competitors can race together but the final positions relate only to your own age group.
Cyclo–cross people are very friendly but they are ultra-competitive. They don’t want to let you pass in races. I have hit a tree, a fence-post and a bush but that’s the nature of racing.
We race pretty much every weekend for four months in the autumn/winter and each race lasts 40 minutes to an hour. I have now got five bikes. A good carbon-framed cyclo-cross bike costs around £3,000.
In about my fifth race, at Ipswich, I started at the back of 93 riders who all, like sheep, went down the right-hand side. But I kicked like hell down the left-hand side, hugged the inside of the left-hand bend and passed about 30 people on the first lap.
I eventually finished 17th and could have floated from Ipswich back to Newmarket.
After some proper training last year, I got two thirds, one at Leighton Buzzard and the other at Hillingdon. That gave me as much satisfaction as winning the Derby!
The more you race, the more you learn – about training programmes, what to eat and drink, tyre pressures, race tactics. I’m still fairly light, at around ten stone, so a fast, firm, sharp, twisting track suits me best.
I am 63 later this month but I want to do this sport for another ten years. Hopefully I will sneak a race win one day – that would be like riding the winner of the Arc de Triomphe!
* Ray Cochrane rode around 1,500 winners as a jockey, including the 1988 Derby on Kahyasi. He was awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Bravery for saving Frankie Dettori’s life.
Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.sportingexcitement.com/horse-racing/matt-chapman-talks-all-things-oisin-murphy-pinatubo-and-antepost-punting-woes-in-his-latest-column
