Tarja Owens, from

Delgany Delgany () is a small rural village in County Wicklow in Ireland, located on the R762 road which connects to the N11 road at the Glen of the Downs. It is about south of Dublin city centre. While it is an older more rural settlement, it is cl ...

County Wicklow County Wicklow ( ; ga, Contae Chill Mhantáin ) is a county in Ireland. The last of the traditional 32 counties, having been formed as late as 1606, it is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the province of Leinster. It is bordered by t ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

), is an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

former competitive mountain biker and road racer, who competed in the Sydney Olympic Games of 2000 and later became the first female professional Irish cyclist.

Career

Early career

Owens comes from

, near Greystones, Co. Wicklow. Her uncle, Peter Doyle, was an active international competitive cyclist. She was Irish Ladies mountain biking champion six times, and rode in a range of national and international MTB and road races, including stage events and the World Championships. She was then selected to ride at the Sydney Olympic Games, with funding of 3000 euro a year from the Sports Council and earnings as a gym instructor. After the 2000 Olympics, Owens decided to pursue a professional road racing career, and moved from the Helly Hansen team to accept an offer from the Michaela Fanini team for the 2001 season, making her Ireland's first professional female cyclist (one or two cyclists had earlier been offered posts but had remained amateur). She was coached by

Martin Earley Martin Earley (born 15 June 1962) is a former Irish professional road bicycle racer, who competed in the 1984 and 1996 Olympic Games. Racing career He turned professional in 1985 with the Fagor team with whom he stayed until 1987. In 1986 he wo ...

, and stayed with the team for 18 months, being selected to ride in the Giro d'Italia in her first year. With her then partner

Robin Seymour Robin Seymour may refer to: *Robin Seymour (cyclist) (born 1971), Irish professional mountain bike racer and cyclocross racer *Robin Seymour (DJ) Robin Henry Seymour (March 9, 1926 – April 17, 2020) was an American radio personality and disc j ...

, Ireland's top-ranked mountain biker, Owens competed in, and won, the mixed category of the seven-day 2005 TransRockies Challenge.

Later career

Owens started a mountain bike touring business in northern Italy with her partner Niall Davis in 2010. They later opened biking.ie, a business operating mountain bike events at Ticknock in south Dublin and near

Roundwood Roundwood, historically known as Tóchar ( ga, an Tóchar , meaning 'the causeway'), is a village in County Wicklow, Ireland. It was listed as having a population of 948 in the 2016 census. Geography Roundwood is located where the R755 road ...

in Wicklow. They married in 2017, and have two children. Owens qualified as an osteopath in 2012 and is owner and lead operator of Roundwood Osteopathy and Sports Clinic.

References and notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Owens, Tarja 1977 births Sportspeople from County Wicklow Irish female cyclists Irish mountain bikers Olympic cyclists of Ireland Cyclists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Living people