In its heyday, one of the Republic's oldest cycling clubs had 50 racing members. Its calendar included events which attracted young cyclists from all over the State. Most of these races proved so popular that entrants had to be turned away.
"We saw the best years", says Richard Strattan, of Blarney Cycling Club in Co Cork. Now the 115-year-old club has five racing members and only one of those is under 16.
He talks sadly about the abundance of dusty trophies in cabinets around the State - forgotten prizes for cycling events which are unlikely to be held again. He has his own theories for this cycle of decline.
"Going back to the Eighties, we had a voluntary body, the Irish Cycling Federation. There was no money involved. Now it has become money-orientated and sponsorship has become more important than the sport", he says.
But his gripes do not just lie with cycling's current governing body, the Federation of Irish Cyclists. Mr Strattan cites a lack of commitment among some in the sport and purchasing trends which have seen games consoles replace bikes as the gifts of choice for young girls and boys.
It was so different in the mid-to-late 1980s. Stephen Roche's Tour de France win in 1987 saw the sport mushroom to unprecedented levels here. Bike shops reported increased sales in racing bikes. The newly-formed FIC registered 6,000 members during this peak. Now the figure is nearer 2,000. At one stage the federation had five professional cyclists. Now there is none.
Former professional cyclist and journalist Paul Kimmage describes the scene at the time. "After Roche won, the sport became really glamorous. The shiny sweaty faces of cyclists attracted the kids in droves. The FIC lost the chance to capitalise on this."
There were, he says, some "horrendous" crashes in open races involving up to 30 and 40 riders. "The kids had all this new equipment, but they didn't know how to ride the bikes. The structures weren't in place to teach them, whereas I remember going to lectures about the technical aspects of the sport when I was starting out", he says.
Then, in the summer of 1988, the first days of the Jack Charlton era, many of these new recruits were lured away from cycling and on to the soccer pitch. "Cycling is a very tough sport and today kids just don't want to take the hard option", Kimmage says.
According to Kimmage, the sport is "dying, not healthy, in need of a serious boost". FIC officials remain resolute in the face of this, telling critics "not to hold their breath" for Irish cycling's imminent demise.
"Sean Kelly and Stephen Roche became a stick to beat us with", says Tony Allen, secretary of the FIC. "People say we missed the boat, but our organisation had only just been formed, the whole drive was to get ourselves up and running."
For people to claim that there were mass crashes during the Roche cycling revival is "bunkum", according to Mr Allen. "We have a skills programme that was introduced five years ago where kids learn handling skills. We have put that system in place. This is a hazardous sport. It costs the federation £40,000 in public liability insurance". Mr Allen feels that the Tour could help in terms of sponsorship. "We are hoping that some big companies out there will wake up to how big cycling is." And the federation is putting together a strategy plan for the future. "We are not standing still."