Dowling came to the sport late from triathlon, and as a very good climber he has the talent and plenty of years ahead of him to break through
By Brian Canty
It’s been a winter and a spring that Mark Dowling is unlikely to ever forget. But he’s come through it – with a professional contract - and he’s hoping 2013 will be the best year of his short career so far.
The 26-year-old climber, who has been training in Lanzarote since the start of November, contemplated retiring from the sport due to a lack of opportunities last year and just when it seemed one came along, that too was de-railed.
Dowling had been slated to start the Troefeo Deia race in Majorca with a Spanish team – a race that saw some of the world’s most celebrated names take to the start-line. But at the last minute the team were forced to withdraw as one of their riders crashed in the Track World Cup in Mexico, couldn’t race and the race organisers opted for another team.
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“I was absolutely gutted when I heard that news,” said Dowling.
“You had some of the biggest names in the world at that race and I saw it as a huge chance for me to impress. The top pros were there, like Wiggins and Valverde and when I see Ian Bibby getting 10th I just think what I could have done. But that’s cycling. For any bit of good news you have 20 bits of bad news,” he added.
Dowling has reason to be upbeat now, however, as he’s put pen to paper on a deal with the UCI Continental Polygon Sweet Nice racing team alongside four other Irish riders, namely Ryan Sherlock, Charles Prendergast, Stephen Halpin and Dan Clifford.
And he explains how it all came about for him and what’s in store.
“It was Ryan Sherlock who called me before Christmas,” he explained.
“I had been stuck for a team because this is the first year I decided I wanted to step up to a Continental team. I had no experience with it before. I didn’t know all these Continental teams would be full up by September and I only started looking mid-November so pretty much all the doors I knocked on were full, even though they were all very interested.”
“So Ryan gave me a call to see what my plans were and he told me he’d been working with this Asian team with (David) McCann and Cycling Ireland so he asked me would I be interested and I liked it.”
What impressed him most was the racing itself.
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“The calendar that they seemed to have, I saw it would suit me really well. It’s a hard calendar with a lot of races in the back-end of the season as well, in August to October, and that would suit me down to the ground because I’d race all year if I could. It will give me a chance to pick up UCI points.”
“Like, if I’m racing UCI races in Belgium I’m just pissing into the wind I think. I wouldn’t pick up a single point. But in Asia, from what I’ve been told, that style out there, they have a lot of mega mountains and a lot of summit finishes and that will suit me more.”
“I think I can go out there and not just take part, or hang on. I think I can actually win mountain stages and gain a lot of points that way. That’s my kind of terrain and I’ll have chances to win races,” he enthused.
With each rider keen to make his mark, Dowling rubbishes any suggestion of rivalry existing between the riders.
“Not at all,” he says.
“Me and Ryan would both regard ourselves as climbers but that’ll just drive both of us to be even better. Then you’ve Clifford and Halpin who regard themselves as better sprinters and I would both think they’re strong finishers and that’ll motivate them to train even harder to better each other.”
“But when it comes to a race and the manager gives the order, if I’m to ride for Ryan on a mountain stage, then so be it. And also with the other two, you can really, really help each other. The favour can always be returned. We all know each other well. Sherlock and Halpin are my neighbours and I know Clifford very well from being in France with him last year.”
With five Irish riders, it’s natural to assume that will be their Rás team. And that’s a race Dowling has set as a big target.
“I see stages four and seven of the Rás could suit me. Stage seven is nearly the same stage as two years ago and I had a really good day that day. I think I was county rider on that stage. Normally I get better as races go on, I recover well. I start riding stronger towards the end.”
“And if we’re going to be riding some stage races abroad with this new team in April and the month of May, then I should be able to have the speed of the foreign pros that come over,” he reasoned.
But with that comes pressure.
“Yeah, motivation and pressure,” he says.
“There’ll be plenty people out to knock us. The way Irish people are, they just love to shoot people down, and now that we’re on a Continental team, there’s going to be a lot of pressure. To get the results and to ride well at home, against the Irish riders will be hard.”
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