Robert-Jon McCarthy riding Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne last Sunday in Belgium, with sprint star Andre Greipel in the German champion's kit to his left (Photo: Lydia Van de Meerssche)
By Brian Canty
If the 30 degree temperature swing between Adelaide and Brussels didn’t welcome him to the life of a cyclist in Europe last weekend, Robert-Jon McCarthy’s debut with the An Post Chainreaction team last Sunday certainly did.
“Will sleep well tonight” the 19-year-old Cork-born Australian posted on his Facebook page after Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne on Sunday, where he was not a finisher.
“When I left home last Thursday week it was about 35 degrees and when I got here it was about four,” he laughs.
“I rode the bike an hour on Saturday and raced Kuurne on Sunday. It was a big eye-opener. I was feeling a bit tired after the travelling and wasn’t used to the bike so that made it tougher.
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“But at the same time it wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected. It was a really good experience so I was happy I did it.”
Spending the first 13 years of his life in Fermoy, Co Cork, will probably help him acclimatize to conditions in Belgium. But he admits it is still quite a culture shock.
“The weather, the roads, the houses are different; everything is just a bit different to Australia. You can’t just go down to the beach. It’s a bit more relaxed there.
“Here you have to get in quickly out of the cold and have a shower after a ride. So it’s a different lifestyle, a bit more indoors I guess. Maybe in the summer it’ll be different. The weather will be the big one for me I think.”
Tipped for success from a young age, McCarthy has enjoyed a phenomenal couple of years; first being crowned Australian junior road champion, beating the hottest prospect in the world Caleb Ewan.
He was 2nd to Ewan in the U23 criterium nationals in January. And shortly after that McCarthy won a stage of the Herald Sun Tour against the likes of Matt Goss (Orica GreenEdge) and Steele Van Hoff (Garmin-SHARP).
On the podium in his An Post-Chainreaction kit for 2nd place at the U23 criterium championships in Australia (Photo: Darren Francis Casey)
“That was a perfect moment for me because I was racing against a good quality field,” he says of the stage win in January.
“It has definitely made me a bit more confident for this year. I thought I’d be capable of a podium but winning that first big pro race was like, ‘wow’.
“Beating guys like Van Hoffe and Goss was a bit of a surprise initially. But I’d done the hard work in training and I knew I had the power to be competitive in the finish.”
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The call from An Post Chainreaction had come a couple of months before that, and though he had other offers – like staying under the wing of the South Australian Institute of Sport – he jumped at the chance to come to Europe.
“Being from Ireland, you look up to An Post and just knowing what a good team it is and what talent they’ve produced made it pretty exciting.
“I had nothing else concrete. There’s always the U23 Australian system but they don’t tend to pick their team until after the nationals in January. So I just wanted something a bit more concrete and I thought An Post-Chainreaction was the right option. You could crash in the nationals and your options are gone.
“It helped that I knew a few of the guys. I knew Jack Wilson pretty well from when we were kids and I met him in Belgium again last year in different races.
“I know Glenn O’Shea very well; he lives 20 minutes from me in Australia and we were in the South Australian Institute together.
“But the people who I’m really grateful to are my parents. They were terrific and all the sacrifices they’ve made so I can pursue my goal has been pretty amazing.”
Winning a stage in the Herald Sun Tour in February riding for the Australian national team; a victory that says he's one to keep a close eye on.
McCarthy, who will turn 20 years in a couple of weeks, said his exact programme is still not clear. However, he is simply keen to use the year to continue to develop.
“I haven’t really thought about what I want to do. I think the biggest thing is just to develop, maybe take a bit more pressure in the sprinter-friendly races.
“But I’m happy to take that pressure. That’s where I see myself; that’s where I want to get a result and be a good sprinter. And I just want to learn as much as I can.
“An ideal scenario for me is coming to the line with a reduced bunch of maybe 60 riders. I really fancy myself in those kinds of scenarios.”
Having been born and raised in Ireland, but lived the past six years in Australia and become a fixture in their national set up, does he regard himself as Irish or Australian?
“I’d see myself as very much half and half,” he says.
“I spent the first 13 years of my life in Ireland so there’s that and you can’t ignore that. But I’ve grown up in Australia and as far as cycling goes I’ve made most of my career in Australia.
“It’s hard to answer; I don’t have an answer for it. We’ll cross that bridge another day if it comes to it.”
- McCarthy was speaking to stickybottle at the team launch in Belgium mid week. Unfortunately he has crashed today, Saturday, in Driedaagse West Vlaanderen and suffered a broken wrist.
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