With Dan Martin and Nicolas Roche now retired, attention has shifted to the next generation of pro riders, as well as the younger Irish competitors chasing big contracts. Wicklow’s Archie Ryan is one of the latter, competing with the Jumbo-Visma Development Team. He has taken important results already this year and speaks to stickybottle about his return to form and his debut for the Jumbo Visma World Tour team coming up very soon.
By Shane Stokes
It’s been quite a
turnaround for Archie Ryan. One year ago he began the Istrian Spring Trophy
race plagued by a knee problem. A distant 106th in the prologue and 131st on
the first road race stage, he was a non-starter the following day due to that
knee issue. He didn’t race again for the whole 2021 season.
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Twelve months
later, things couldn’t be more different. Ryan was again part of the
Jumbo-Visma Development Team’s lineup for the 2.2 ranked event. This time
around, he took a fine sixth on the uphill finish to Motovun and ended the race
a superb seventh overall, just 15 seconds off the podium. He was also the best
rider on his team.
“I knew the form
was good,” he told stickybottle. “But the opportunity just came during the
stage and I tried to make the best of it. Luckily we came away with a decent
result, so I’m happy enough.”
What’s interesting
is that Ryan had actually downplayed his chances somewhat prior to the event.
He spoke to stickybottle last Wednesday and indicated that he wasn’t the designated
leader on the squad.
“I was a reserve
but due to an injury of another rider I’m starting the stage race,” he said
then. “The aims of the race are to defend the general classification which we
won here last year. We have a number of guys who can do well overall so it’s
going to be good fun.
“I’m in mainly a
support role. I’m not the leader at this race. However the stages aren’t so
difficult so I shouldn’t be so far behind in the general classification.”
That turned out to be something of an understatement.
So, had things
turned out better than anticipated? Or had he simply been playing things down
beforehand?
“Slightly playing
it down,” he admits now. “But also the team didn’t want to put pressure on me
because it was my first (stage) race back. And one of the other guys had been
racing quite a bit already this year, and was going well. So we thought the
course - especially with the prologue - would suit him more.
“But, as it played
out, I just ended up having the good legs. So it ended up being a little bit in
my favour.”
The first hint that
things might go better than expected came in the opening prologue. Completely
flat and only 1.5 kilometres in length, it was not a course which suited a
specialist climber. Yet Ryan placed a very solid 35th, just five seconds behind
the stage winner.
When the quality of
that ride is mentioned to him, he acknowledges it exceeded his own
expectations. “That was actually a very good prologue,” he says. “I was very,
very happy with that. Only losing four or five seconds was brilliant for me.
“It definitely did
give me a lot of confidence for what was to come. I really didn’t know what to
expect, so for sure it boosted the confidence.”
The second big
showing of form came at the end of stage two. Having finished in the bunch on
the first road stage, he was then one of the most aggressive riders on the
uphill finish the following day. He stayed close to the front, then put in a
big surge inside the final kilometre.
“I attacked with
about 500 to go,” he explains. “And then the last two or three hundred metres
was real rough cobbles at about 12 per cent or something. I entered that part
second, but a few lads ended up passing me. So I ended up sixth on the day.
Cobbles aren’t quite my style, but I gave it a good crack.”
He certainly did. And given that he competed on just four occasions last season and is still building form, there is reason to be very optimistic about how things could go in 2022.
“It’s good to be
back”
Perhaps the first big sign of Ryan’s talent came in the Junior Tour of Wales in 2018. He won the final stage, beating the world cyclocross champion plus the rest of an international peloton to the top of Tumble Mountain. He also finished third overall in the race.
Those performances
secured the attention of Jumbo-Visma and it carried out physiological testing
on Ryan in spring 2019. It then offered him a contract with its development
team for 2020 and 2021. That was a huge boost, not least because its WorldTour
wing is one of the most successful outfits in cycling.
For example, last
September it won the Vuelta a España for the third year in a row with Primoz
Roglic. More recently, it won Paris-Nice with the same rider. It also took
second overall in the Tour de France last July with Jonas Vingegaard.
Motivated to make an impression, Ryan’s time with the development squad initially went very well. As a first year under 23 rider, he finished sixth and seventh on stages plus a fine eighth overall in the 2020 Ronde de l’Isard. He also took seventh overall in the Albertina Baltyk-Karkonosze Tour in Poland.
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However the flare up
of a long-running knee issue early last year complicated things and he only
competed on a handful of days.
“It’s my ACL (anterior
cruciate ligament – ed),” he explained last November. “I think it is something
genetic. My mum’s had issues, my twin brother also had knee issues. So it’s
just one of those things.
“I’ve been doing
strength training for the past four years trying to sort this problem and
hasn’t been working. So we’ve taken a slightly different approach. I’ve been
seeing (physical therapist) Gerard Hartmann down in Limerick and it has been
brilliant. He has sort of fixed me, thankfully. It’s feeling 100 percent now.
Fingers crossed this is it, and that I am sorted for life.”
Four months later,
things remain very much on track. He restarted training on October 3rd and has
worked hard since then, building his form to the point where he could challenge
for top eight finishes on a stage and overall in Croatia.
Given the
frustration and uncertainty he faced last year, how good is it to be back on
form?
“Oh, it is
brilliant,” he says. “It is so good to be back. I really didn’t know what to
expect as well, just being in the bunch again, being in the chaos. I really
thought I could be real scared in the bunch. But it was absolutely fine. And
everything just went so well. It was like I hadn’t missed any time at all. So
it went perfectly.”
What about
Jumbo-Visma – is the squad happy with how things have turned out?
“Yeah, for sure,”
he says. “And they were looking at it from the point of view that last year, I
DNF’d this race. This year I was seventh overall. So we were pretty happy with
that.”
Ryan is still a
very young competitor, having turned 20 last November. His potential is obvious
and now, form already very good, he has been given an important opportunity by
his squad. On Saturday April 2nd he will line out on the 1.1-ranked Volta Limburg
Classic alongside members of the Jumbo-Visma WorldTour team.
Previously riders
would have had to wait for late-season stagiaire slots to be able to guest as
part of the top squads. Nowadays, thanks to a UCI rule change, riders on a
development team can dip in and out of guest slots at other times during the
season.
It’s important as
it will help them gain vital experience. It also enables teams to see the next
generation first-hand and, if those riders perform well, it should boost the
prospects of WorldTour contracts.
Ryan enthuses about
the opportunity. “I haven’t raced with the WorldTour guys before, so it’s going
to be a brilliant experience,” he says. “I can’t wait. Last year I was supposed
to do the Ruta del Sol, but couldn’t (due to the knee injury).
“This new UCI rule
is brilliant, because it gives us so many great opportunities to learn. But
also the Volta Limburg is essentially a home race to where I live. So I’m
really excited for that.”
After that he will
line out in two Italian under-23 races which are high on his list of targets
for the season. He will contest the Giro del Belvedere on April 18th and the GP
Palio del Recioto the following day, events on hilly courses which he describes
as ‘exactly my type of racing.’
They will be his
first big goal. He had originally been targeting the Baby Giro but now with
Jumbo-Visma not taking part, he will seek a strong result in the Tour d’Alsace
stage race at the end of July and the Ronde de l’Isard in October.
“Those are the
races I will be having my eye on,” he says.
Ryan will also
relish any opportunities he gets to compete with the WorldTour team. Signing a
contract there is a big career goal but, given his age, he knows that time is
on his side. As much as he wants to succeed this season, he told stickybottle
over the winter that he isn’t feeling immediate pressure.
“I have a one year
extension for 2022. But I do still have a another year under 23 after that,” he
explained then. “So obviously, the goal is to go to World Tour at some point,
which would be amazing. But if I need to do another year under 23, I’ll do
that. There is no rush. I’m just playing it by ear.”
Speak to Ryan for
any length of time and two things come across. Firstly, he seems older than his
years; he may be just 20, but he seems far more mature than you would expect.
Secondly, he has a
quiet determination and a calm self-confidence, something many of those who go
on to big sporting careers seem to possess.
That came across
last November when he was still waiting to see how his knee would hold up.
“The main goal is
to stay healthy,” he said then. “Because if I can stay healthy everything else
will fall into place. I’m confident in what I can do if I can just stay on my
bike.”
Weeks into his
season, knee back to normal, he is already proving that point.
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