Stephen Spratt’s first big win in cycling was when he won the All-Ireland Schoolboys 10 Mile Time Trial Championship on 22 August 1982 in Cork. The following year he won the Junior Tour of Ireland – one of Europe’s most prestigious stage races for juniors – winning by 40 seconds in the six-day race. Nine times, each year from 1985-1993, Spratt competed in The Rás, Ireland’s major international cycling race, winning the race in 1986 and 1992, and in all he won six stages. Spratt also rode in the Nissan Classic three times, rode in the World Junior Cycling Championships in 1984 at Vannes, France, and also competed in the World Amateur Road Race Championships in 1985 and 1987. Other races won by Stephen Spratt include the Blarney Three-Day, County Cork (1984, 1992), Des Hanlon Memorial, County Carlow (1986, 1991), John Drumm Memorial Cup, County Kerry (1992) and overseas the Tour de Hokkaido, Japan (1992). He won the cycling award at the Tipperary Sports Awards in 1983 and 1985. Spratt later settled in Thailand where he owned and ran the Murphy’s Law Pub & Guesthouse at the busy seaside resort of Pattaya, southeast of Bangkok.
Ireland