This year Jamie Meehan has finished 2nd at the National Road Road Championships and 2nd overall at Rás Tailteann. That might have cracked another rider, especially considering the stinging criticism he got for the manner of his riding on the penultimate stage of the Rás.
With Team Ireland team mate, Dean Harvey, some people believed Meehan had ridden in a way that helped put Britain's George Kimber (Isle of Man CC) into yellow at the expense of Irishman Odhrán Doogan (Cycling Ulster). But he says now the truth of what happened that day into Mountrath is very different to some people's assumptions.
Speaking to stickybottle as he prepares to step up to ride as a stagiare for World Tour team Cofidis, Meehan talks of "excitement" but also of some "nerves" after being handed a huge opportunity; sought by many but secured by few. It's a chance that has come after he previously believed his journey in high performance cycling was over. He'd even begun making plans to finally take up that place in college, until one day, one performance, changed everything.
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He also believes he has developed as a rider free of the pressures now being applied to cyclists at a very young age, saying his family background has helped. "I'm quite blessed with my parents, and the fact that none of my family really know anything about cycling," he laughs. "Even when I told them about Cofidis, they didn't really know what it meant. I'm quite lucky that they leave me to it."
He starts his tenure with Cofidis on August 1st and his first race will be the three-stage Tour de l'Ain (2.1), from August 6th. He'll then ride La Polynormande (1.1), also in France, on August 17th.
The races after that are yet to be decided. And though Meehan doesn't mention Irish team duties, the Europeans are coming up on a course that suits a climber like him. Before that, there is also the not-so-small matter of Tour de l'Avenir.
How Cofidis came about
The most pressing issue now is the chance to ride for a World Tour team for the next few months. From Mountcharles, Donegal, Meehan knew when he stepped up to Conti level this year with AVC Aix Provence Dole they had a strong relationship with Cofidis. He had previously raced for VC Glendale and Spellman Dublin Port at home, as well as Brocar Ale in Spain and CC Étupes in France.
After placing 2nd at Le Poinçonnet-Panazol Limoges Métropole in March, his team told him Cofidis were interested in him. Since then he has spent the season "chasing one more result, one more result" to try and seal the deal with the French World Tour team.
"Then, finally, I got to that point where I got a phone call and was told 'yes, Cofidis wants to have a chat with you'. So it was nice to finally get that call," he said.
This season has been a breakthrough for Meehan. The first phase of the campaign was marked by a string of strong rides, with some top 10 results, in France. He was also 9th on the final stage at Circuit des Ardennes (2.2) in France in April and 10th in top Italian U23 race Giro del Belvedere (1.2U).
Though he fractured his hand in Italy in May, he bounced back later that month for 2nd overall at Rás Tailteann before placing 2nd on a stage and 12th overall at Alpes Isère Tour (2.2) the following week.
Then came 2nd at the Nationals - elite road race silver and U23 gold - before two 3rd places at Tour du Piémont Pyrénéen in France two weeks ago. And last week came the biggest peformance of his career to date. Meehan was 6th overall at Giro Ciclistico della Valle d'Aosta-Mont Blanc (2.2U), one of the most prestigious and hardest U23 races in the sport.
In the big mountains of northern Italy, when the riders raced into high altitude on the summit finishes, Meehan was 4th, 9th and 9th on the three big stages, climbing among the best U23s in the world. He said that result in Italy gives him a lot of confidence as he moves on for the next few months to Cofidis, racing against the biggest pro teams in the world.
Steady development, but almost walking away
Now aged 21 years, he is older than many riders when they get their big chance. He really only started to take cycling seriously as a second-year U23. Up to that point "I was training when I felt like it, racing when I felt like it", completing his Leaving Cert in 2022.
But in 2023, former international rider Barry Monaghan began coaching him and he went to race in Spain with elite team Brocar Ale. When he came back to ride the Rás that year on a Cycling Ulster team, he enjoyed it so much - riding with friends like Mitchell McLaughlin - it was a struggle going back to Spain, with none of the craic of the Irish scene.
And about six weeks later he returned to Ireland once more for the National Road Race Championships in Dungannon, Co Tyrone. At that point he was on the cusp of wrapping up his cycling career. He'd defered a place in college the previous year and he'd begun to put the wheels in motion to take it up.
The day before the championships he decided the game was up. But the next day was the day that changed everything.
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"I remember I was hanging out with my cousin's the day before the Nationals in the pub. I wasn't drinking, but I was just sitting with them. I decided I wasn't going to do another year of cycling. I was getting ready to go to college. I already had the ground work running on that.
"And I was thinking 'yeah if I could finish the race tomorrow, that will be a pretty big accomplishment'. And then I went on the next day to win the U23 title. It was pretty unexpected for me. And I knew then I had to try and take my chance when I could.
"That chance to wear the champ's jersey… I knew I had to grab that with both hands. It ended up being a huge opportunity. I got to go to the (2023) Worlds for the first time with the Irish team; that was a fucking amazing feeling. That was my first time getting picked for an Irish team so that was huge."
There followed the Tour de l'Avenir, in the Irish champion's jersey and helping Archie Ryan in his, successful, efforts to win a stage.
"That was my first time stage racing with top U23 riders. I was looking around in awe and thinking 'some of these riders are on pro bikes'. I thought it was mental. So for me, I just wanted to go balls out every day to try and finish. My goal was to just make the time cut. And I ended up having my best day on the last day. I felt really good, even though I'd had stomach problems."
French adventure begins
Capturing the Irish champion's jersey and then very quickly getting the nod for the Worlds and l'Avenir changed Meehan's outlook. Now he wanted to continue in the sport, indeed work harder and go further.
His coach, Monaghan, and international rider and Rás winner Dillon Corkery got together and helped Meehan get a place at top French elite, CC Étupes, for 2024. That was just as Corkery was moving on from that outfit for St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93). Meehan got another hard season of racing into his legs in France in 2024, another year of racing experience hardwired into him. And he secured a place on Conti team AVC Aix Provence Dole for this year.
However, as he prepared for the 2025 season, he endured a troubled winter. Constant knee problems were finally attributed to a poor bike fit. Meehan went to Chris McCann at Inspired Cycling and "got sorted" in the first weeks of this season.
Once his position on the bike was adjusted, the constant knee pain was gone and the joy returned to training and racing. But the biggest change between 2024 and 2025 for Meehan has been a change in perspective.
"Last year I got a bit too caught up in the whole idea of numbers and the science part of it… the training," he says. "This year I've been a bit more relaxed and I've thought a bit more about just riding the bike. And that's left me racing a bit more freely, which has done me more good."
Last week in particular was a huge one in his development. But the Cofidis deal was already done by then. Meehan says it's a team that doesn't often sign up its stagieres to World Tour contracts. So he is going to approach it as another step up, a "shop window" to try and get a pro contract.
So what about that Rás Tailteann then?
Riding for Team Ireland, Meehan and Dean Harvey attacked on the final climb of Wolftrap, crested 14km from the finish in Mountrath on the penultimate day back in May. However, they were unable to drop George Kimber (Isle of Man). They rode to the finish as a trio, with Kimber winning the stage and also taking the yellow jersey - from Odhrán Doogan (Cycling Ulster).
Some cycling fans on social media questioned why, as they saw it, two Irish riders helped British rider Kimber to stay away and gain the time he needed to take the yellow jersey from Irishman Doogan, and then win the race overall the next day. Kimber topped the final GC by just five seconds from Meehan; five seconds lost when someone let a gap appear in the bunch in the sprint on stage 1.
"Everyone feels like me and Dean brought him to the line," says Meehan of Kimber. "But what really happened was that me and Dean went flat out to the top of the climb, hoping to drop him. And fair play to him, he stuck with us, and we weren't hanging around. We went balls out to the top of the climb and he was still there.
"And then, to be honest, it was Kimber that pulled us to the finish. Me and Dean would have been caught by that chasing bunch. We lost something like 30 seconds from the top of the climb to the finish. I was barely pulling through. I'm not the biggest of guys. Dean and Kimber had much more power.
"But without Kimber we would have been caught and the best Irish result in the Rás would have been a top 10 to 20 on GC. That was the day to really try, for us, in the Irish jersey - especially with me being a climber, in a pretty much flat race route. So we knew we had to take our chance there and we did."
Though he answers the questions about the Rás openly when asked, it's all about Cofidis now. "It's exciting, just getting to see how one of the bigger teams work, you know. Exciting."
