Up and coming Irish rider Archie Ryan has been offered a new contract with Jumbo Visma's development team. It means he stays with the Continental outfit next year. It will be the 19-year-old's third season with the Dutch team.
“It's great to extend my contract. This team is exactly where I want to be at this stage of my development,” Ryan said of the new contract extending his tenure with Jumbo Visma.
“For me, there is no better place right now. I feel very
good here. Thanks to the team I am developing myself as a rider.”
Ryan lives in a team house with other riders in Watersley Sports and Talent Park in Sittard in the southern province of Limburg. The concept of the house is to provide the riders with a base, leaving them free to focus on their development as athletes.
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“I feel I can take the next step here”, Ryan said.
“Hopefully I can make the step up to the pros in a few years. Gijs Leemreize
and Olav Kooij have already shown that there is that possibility. The path they
have taken is a good example. Hopefully I can follow that.”
Ryan's former team mates, Leemreize (21) and Kooij (19), and whose path he is hoping to follow to the pro ranks both rode for the development team last year. But they also got a chance to step up to Jumbo Visma’s WorldTour team for some races. Now both have signed for the WorldTour squad.
Ryan, whose climbing abilities look world class, has a great opportunity to make the same progress. And now with an extra season at the development team he has time to make up for lost opportunities due to the pandemic and some injury issues.
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Head of development at Jumbo Visma, Robbert de Groot, said Ryan is a talented climber and he was pleased the Irish rider was staying with the team for a third season in 2022.
“Archie is a great talent who is still very young. He has
already shown things in races and in trainings that are very good,” he said.
“Thanks to his spirit and courage, he is an important link in our team. We hope he can further develop and showcase his climbing talent in the coming years.”
Ryan, from Co Wicklow, joined the Jumbo Visma development team last year. However, his racing chances were severely curtailed in 2020 due to the pandemic. A crash and some injury issues this year have also impacted his racing schedule.
However, when he has raced his talent has been very clear. Last year he finished 7th overall at the Karkonosze Tour (2.2) in Poland and was 8th overall at Ronde de l’Isard (2.2U) in France.
Both were strong general classification rides based on his climbing abilities. Those results were achieved despite the fact he only rode three stage races last year, with no one-day racing as so many events were cancelled due to Covid-19.
He kicked off this year with a series of races in Croatia. Just before he was about to hit the first climbs of his 2021 season he crashed on stage 2 of the Istrian Spring Trophy (2.2), in March, and was forced out of that race.
A combination of his crash injuries, a knee injury and a number of races being cancelled or postponed in recent months due to the pandemic mean he hasn't raced since his crash in Croatia in mid March. However, his return to racing is imminent.
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