KELLY MURPHY DESCRIBES herself as the “scaredy-cat” of the Irish team pursuit squad, but these things are all relative. Anyone racing at nearly 60 km/h on a bike with no brakes and nothing by a thin layer of lycra for protection is pretty steely by the standards of those of us who would struggle to distinguish a velodrome from the Connacht air dome.
“It’s my personality to be more cautious, but so many of my career and life decisions hinge on going to the Olympics”, says Murphy. “It’s such a big goal that I worry about preserving myself to make that aim.”
Murphy is one member of an Irish track cycling team whose overarching pursuit is a spot at the 2024 Olympic Games, and they remain, er, on track for that goal. A fourth-placed finish at last week’s European Championships brought an initial disappointment that was tempered by the bigger picture.
Ireland are ranked ninth in the world, with the top 10 qualifying for the Paris Games. Upcoming Nations Cup events in Adelaide and Hong Kong offer Murphy and her teammates opportunities to rubber-stamp a historic place at the Games.
Ireland missed out on third place in the Europeans – losing to Germany – but earned their shot at the bronze medal by enduring a chaotic crash in the previous round against Switzerland, for which their opponents were disqualified for dangerous riding. Murphy was run over twice in the crash, but walked away with only cuts and bruises.
“We could see the Swiss team, we were coming up to overtake as we were carrying quite a lot more speed than they were”, says Murphy. “I was in the front of the line and I swung up to do a change, so I was at the top of the track and could see it all unfold beneath me. The flag had gone up, which means the Swiss team have to stay down, it’s a rule: if you’ve been called you stay where you are and allow for a safe overtake.
“It was as if it happened in slow motion. Perhaps they were really tired or relatively new to team pursuit, you could see when the flags and the whistles started going, it slipped their mind in the heat of the moment. There was a lot of screaming: you could hear it as well as you could see it.
“I made the decision to stay high and stay out of the way, a lot of my team-mates stayed down to make for an aggressive overtake, which was the right thing to do. It was one of the most chaotic races I’ve ever done.”
If anyone’s competitive instinct relented to the point of reaching for the brake…well, they would have been disappointed. Track bikes don’t have brakes, but Murphy explains they have a fixed gear, meaning the bike won’t roll if you don’t pedal.
It was Murphy’s second track crash in six years, which she counts as a pretty fortunate ratio. She has had less luck on the road, where she also races and is a three-time national time trial champion.
“I’ve been run over three times, which is an unusual statement for anyone to make”, she says with exquisite understatement.
Murphy trains full-time with the Irish squad in Majorca, and is based in Birmingham. She was born in London to Irish parents, Gerry and Ellen, both of whom moved to England when they were children: Gerry from Roscommon; Ellen from Dublin. Both families were named Murphy, and they happened to move in next door to each other. The Olympic Games weren’t exactly a preoccupation of Kelly’s young life: her cycling passion sparked when she was 28 and started cycling to work. She graduated from commuting to racing, entering into local races in which she caught Irish eyes.
Two weeks after completing a PhD in brain imaging and cognitive neuroscience, Murphy took a call from the Irish cycling federation, asking if she was interested in racing for Ireland, having been spotted at local races. It led to the suspension of her neuroscience career and the launch of an improbable ambition.
“I know a good deal when I see one”, she says of that first call from Ireland. “You’re a long time dead so why not. I am living the dream now, as it were. Getting to the Olympics would be a dream come true. I very much see myself as someone who is not very talented, it’s something I would have to earn.
“Team pursuit is, in theory, riding around in a straight line, but I don’t think anyone has had to work so hard at it as I have! There’s a lot of skill involved in riding around in a straight line, and all of my team mates are fantastic riders. I strive to be like them every time I get on the bike. I train mostly to keep up with them and I don’t mind that challenge.”
She will eventually go back to the world of science, where she had been working on drawing up new diagnostic criteria for dyslexia.
“Hopefully the world of science hasn’t progressed too much without me”, she says. Even if it has, expect an unrelenting pursuit on that front, too.
