Having stomped through Irish cycling’s youth ranks, Adam Stenson continued to make seamless progress when he turned junior.
Stenson quickly became one of the best U18s in the country during his first year in the category in 2015.
A string of good performances, including a stage win at the Junior Tour of Wales, saw him gain selection for the World Road Championships. And he also rode for Ireland on the track.
But such has been the trouble that’s followed him around since then; he says he is only now hitting the kind of form he was in at those Worlds.
In January 2016 his gallop came to a shuddering halt. A troublesome knee, just when he should have been cranking up his winter training, was diagnosed as tendonitis of the patella and quadriceps.
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He knew it might be a long road back. But he was thinking in terms of weeks and months.
And after four months on the sidelines he managed to get his injury sorted sufficiently to train again.
In May of last year he attempted to come back to competition. But he got just five races into his legs when his knee cried no more.
He had the Irish jersey on his back at the Trofeo Karlsberg, a Junior Nations Cup race in Germany, when recovery and comeback instantly turned to major setback.
And this time there’d be no quick return. It would be seven months before he was able to get back on his road bike.
“I got five races in and then got injured in Germany; wasn’t able to ride the bike at all,” he says.
“I eventually had to get onto a mountain bike. I just wasn’t able for the angles on the road bike for six months.
“Come last December myself and my coach Tim Cassidy sat down and decided how we were going to go about it,” he says of getting back on his road bike.
The answer was simply; he’d come back slowly but surely. Stenson started with very short bike rides at the end of last year. And has been building ever since.
“During the start of this year it was very much touch and go whether I could train or not,” he says.
“Any time I upped my training my knee would get sore. But we’ve progressively upped it throughout the year.
“I finally got on par with everyone else and now back to where I should be.”
That fact that he is, in his own words, now “on par with everyone else” is clear.
A very strong ride by the 19-year-old at the Suir Valley Three Day last weekend saw him claim the climbers’ classification.
He also went clear in a breakaway on the final day; on the run-in to The Nire finish climb. And only stage and overall winner Mark Dowling (Strata 3-VeloRevolution) would catch and pass him.
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Yesterday Stenson took another big step forward in his career. The Bikeworx Celbridge man claimed a very convincing win at the John Beggs Memorial.
He would miss the breakaway in the race, the penultimate round of the National Road Series. But he would get across to it.
And when the enlarged breakaway split, Stenson would again ride across to the leading trio having missed their attack.
Closing in on the finish he would attack those he was with; Ronan McLaughlin and Seán Lacey of Aqua Blue Academy and Angus Fyffe of Omagh Wheelers.
He’d solo to the finish; winning by well over one minute.
It’s the kind of form that may just get him selected for the U23 Irish team for the World Road Championships next month. However, he knows the competition for places is fierce.
“I feel like I’m good enough to be picked,” he says, with a confidence that stops well short of arrogance.
“It’s down to whatever Cycling Ireland decided really. I knew from the start of the year I was always capable of it,” he adds of his rides of the last two weekends.
“But I don’t think other people thought I was able to do it; other riders. Hopefully I can win a few more races now.
“I think I can do everything reasonably well. I can climb with Dowling, like I did last weekend. Or be up in the sprints with Cigala. I’d like to think I’m versatile.”
Such was his troubled season last year that he did not have enough points for his A1 licence at the start of 2017.
He promptly won his first three A2 races and was promoted immediately.
It was a sign of things to come despite a very modest winter’s training.
“At the start of the year I was just getting over my knee injury. I wasn’t really able to train during the winter,” he says.
“And then by the time I even got half going again I was doing my Leaving Cert.
“After that I started plugging away at the training again. And I think it’s starting to show now.”
Currently waiting on those Leaving Cert results, he says his plans for next year would firm up once he knew the outcome of the exams.
“It all depends on whether I get into college or not,” he laughed, adding he would also consider racing abroad.
“If I could get an international team that’s good... But if I could only get a club-based foreign team I won’t go.
“You’d want to be on a decent enough team to be going away; to make it worth your while.”
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