Declan Walsh

Irish, living in The Netherlands, planning to live in Lanzarote

Growing up in the West of Ireland there wasn't a lot going on from a cycling perspective but I do remember one bike race that some friends and I entered in the late 70's... it was a multiple loop criterium sort of thing and I knew nothing about cycling. I raced to the front and sat there for the first 5 loops before being passed by most of the other riders (including the two friends I went there with) and finished the 7 loop course at the back of the pack.

In Ireland at that time the sport you did was very much determined by where you went to secondary school, and I went to a rugby playing school. This served me very well and I played rugby until my early 40's when a combination of AC dislocations and a burgeoning interest in marathons led me from rugby to triathlon.

My first season of triathlon was 2010 when I took advantage of the Challenge Barcelona pack. The 1/2 in Lisbon fitted neatly with a family gathering, and then I did the Barcelona 1/2 early in the Summer and the full that October.

Since then I have done an Iron distance event almost every year and will have my second attempt at ICON in September 2025 (I DNFed early in the run in 2023).

Triathlon led me to cycling, and while I have never been much good in a peleton, I am more of a cyclist than a swimmer or a runner, and fortunately cycling is something I can share with my wife (Nina, who is also a multiple IronMan).

We got into 'velotourism' in about 2014 when we started going on holidays to different Canary Islands and not renting cars, but instead, renting bikes. This escalated quickly to a self-supported tour of Southern Iceland in 2015, before the arrival of Marshall (our dog) put an end to those type of adventures.

We did our first organised multi-day gravel tour in 2022, taking on the Tuscany Trail, and have been doing a lot of one-day stuff (inc. Fltalands 300) since.

I'm taking on the GranGuanche road event in January 2024 and we will do El Piri together in June. Between these will be a Backyard Ultra in Douai, with the main goal of the season being ICON in September.

All going well the last event of the year will be the Haría Titan where I will do the 1/2 distance again (as I did in 2024) but with Nina for company.