User:Twilson r/Sandbox/Tarja Owens

Notability: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Notability_(sports)#Cycling

Following from: In 2005, Seymour together with fellow Irish Olympian Tarja Owens competed in and won the mixed category event of the seven-day 2005 TransRockies Challenge.[7] The two person team that Seymour and Owens rode under was called Podge and Rodge[8] whether this team name was due to possible sponsorship by the famous Irish television puppets Podge and Rodge or whether it was just due to the humorous name is unknown.

a possible article start:

Tarja Owens, from Delgany, County Wicklow, Ireland), is an Irish former competitive mountain biker and road racer, who competed in the Sydney Olympic Games of 2000 and became the first female professional Irish cyclist.

Career

Early career

Owens comes from Delgany, near Greystones, Co. Wicklow.

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 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 received 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, and stayed with the team for 18 months.

With her then partner Robin Seymour, 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 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.