Seth Dunwoody was tipped for the big time from the very start of his journey in the sport and now, still aged just 19, he is shaping up to deliver (Photo: Luis Angel Gomez-Sprint Cycling Agency)
Now a second-year U23 rider with Bahrain Victorious, things have been moving quickly for 19-year-old Irish cyclist Seth Dunwoody. Though signed to the Bahrain U23 development team again this year, he has been selected to ride for the World Tour team multiple times.
Of his 13 race days to date in 2026, nine have been with the World Tour squad. Knowing he was expected to make that step-up to World Tour racing, and also having big goals at U23 level this year, how did he prepare?
Dunwoody tells stickybottle his mileage volume was lower over the winter months, compared to 12 months earlier, though his training involved more efforts than previous winters. He began with a long stint in Perth, where his coach since he was a kid, Stephen Gallagher, lives.
And this time he went with Adam Rafferty, a fellow Ulsterman who is riding this season with Hagens Berman Jayco. Like Dunwoody, Rafferty won a stage at Giro Next Gen last year, and also claimed the bronze medal in the U23 TT at the Europeans. So how did they go about their winter?
Just four years ago, Dunwoody was an U16 riding the European Youth Olympics but has now already moved into World Tour selections
"I spent six weeks over in Perth, it was perfect," said Dunwoody, who has now had to change to a team coach, meaning the relationship with Gallagher is paused "though he knows me well and he can still guide me".
"I actually didn't do as many hours as I did last year. I did quite a bit of gym workout in Australia. And I did quite a few more efforts than I did last year. And that’s becoming a bit of a running theme with everybody's training, that's the way it's going.
"We did a lot of miles but it was still about recovering and resting from what was a pretty heavy season. The gym is just really about strengthening up your muscles generally, slow deep reps, and it will improve your explosiveness. I wouldn't do much upper body, but I do a bit of core as well, that helps."
Dunwoody insists he was not going out and doing long rides of five and six hours, even though he knew he was set to ride major races early in the season for the World Tour team. He said those sessions, especially early in winter, amounted to "overkill".
"With the heat, the temperatures, there, you're getting good quality training as it is. We were doing a lot of group rides and that does get a bit of time in," he said.
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And what about the increased efforts on the bike?
"They were in the middle ground really. We're not trying to over emphasise the sprint, get really quick at sprinting. I've naturally just got quicker in the sprint without really trying to achieve it," he said.
"It was VO2 efforts… the efforts are more about stimulating your fast twitch muscles, just a few intervals over the winter, to keep that ticking over. We're not really reinventing the wheel with these efforts.
"I could go out and do a three-hour ride and maybe do four ten-second sprints, and that's it. It's really simple… Small sprints like that just really keep your sprint ticking over through the winter. With all the miles, you can lose that explosiveness."
He came home at the start of November and then had two team camps; one in December and one in January, in Altea in Spain.
The first camp was about "meeting new teammates… to get the group gelling together". The January camp was "more specific, about getting going racing, it's a pretty nice environment".
This early phase of the season was always going to be busy for Dunwoody, as he looks towards U23 Paris Roubaix. This year is also about selecting specific target races to win, rather than a more general approach last year of learning all he could in his first season as an U23.
But one thing he learned pretty quickly last year was the importance of team work, especially compared to junior racing in Europe over the previous two seasons. Teams, he says, are much more capable of influencing U23 racing than in junior events.
Usually, in the junior ranks, the strongest rider often won, or the best sprinter. And if a breakaway got away, with strong riders in it, and gained a large advantage, the chase behind often wasn't strong enough, or cohesive enough to reel them in.
"But in the U23s, there's enough teams and enough fire power behind for chasing and for the lead-outs for the sprints. The teams are just so much more important. If you don't have a good team around you, or if you don't have a bit of cohesion in the team, you're not going to win."
Dunwoody said having six strong riders wasn't enough. Rather, they had to be strong and cooperate really well, all for one rider, in order to win as they were competing against strong and well-drilled teams.
