Cormac Clarke taking stage three of Ras Dhun na nGall earlier this year (Photo: Marian Lamb – Cycling Ulster)
Promising Newry junior Cormac Clarke has said he’s happy with his ride at the European Junior Championships and is hopeful of being selected for the World Championships and returning to the Continent to prepare if he is picked.
Having finished third in the Junior Tour and taken two stages and overall victory in Ras Dhun na nGall this summer, he believes his recent trip to Europe with the Irish junior team has stood him in good stead.
The squad rode races in Holland, Belgium and Germany in the weeks leading up to last weekend’s European Championships in Goes, Holland.
“I wouldn’t say the European riders are necessarily stronger, but they are more experienced at that style of racing,” he told stickybottle after returning to Ireland.
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“There is a lot of attacking and it’s fast so it’s a case of going in a few moves and hoping it’s the right one. But I felt strong. It was just a case of getting used to it. I got 13th in one race, 8th in another and then got 5th in my last kermesse before the Europeans so I think I did get used to it.”
The teenager described the European Road Race Championships as “a different ball game” to those races he and the other Irish juniors rode in Europe as preparation.
“It was a course where you went from big wide roads to really narrow ones so everybody knew you had to be up the front and there was a fight all the time. There were three or four crashes every lap.”
He said while he went into the race hopeful of a good placing, given the constant jockeying for position and crashes he was glad to have stayed upright and to have finished in the peloton just one second down on winner Alexander Wachter of Austria.
Clarke was Ireland’s top finisher in 36th place. Ryan Mullen, Jack Sadler and Thomas Fallon were also in the bunch. A knee injury flared up on Sean Hahessy forcing him to lose some time, while Dylan Foley crashed and punctured and was forced out.
“Dylan fell twice and he had no rubber left on his back wheel, there was that much skidding going on,” said Clarke.
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“Even in the races we rode leading up to it, I always found you could move up in the bunch; there’d be somewhere you could slot in. But at the Europeans there was very little room to manoeuvre, especially when I was trying to get up the front in the last 10km.”
He added while there was an element of organised lead-outs in the races he and his fellow international squad members rode on their trip to Europe, that was nothing compared to the well-drilled lead-out trains that appeared in the closing stages of last Saturday’s Euros road race.
“You had trains with four or five riders; the Belgians, French, Germans, Italians. They were time trialling against each other; everyone banging off each other. I was 36th, I went into it wanting to do better but looking back on it, not falling off was a good result,” he joked.
He felt getting an 8th and 5th place in the races just before the Europeans showed he was able to find his feet after a while on what was his first racing excursion to the Continent.
“It’s not a huge step up when you go away, not at the junior ranks anyway. I was talking to some Belgian and Dutch coaches and they were telling me there’s a much bigger step up at U23 alright.”
Currently awaiting his A Level results and aiming for a place in a three-year accountancy degree course at Jordanstown, University if Ulster, he said he was looking forward to this weekend’s National Junior Road Race Championships in Dundalk.
“I’ll be going there looking for the win,” he says matter of fact.
After that, his next goal is selection for the World Junior Road Race Championships in Holland next month. He said if he manages to gain selection for that he would look to find a host family on the Continent – most likely in Belgium – to ride some races there to prepare for the Worlds.
Junior European Championships – 129km (average 43.152km/h)
1 WACHTER, Alexander Austria 2:59:22
2 TURGIS, Anthony France +0:01
3 BALLERINI, Davide Italy
4 MOHORIC, Matej Slovenia
5 KATRASNIK, GaSper Slovenia
6 TROIA, Oliviero Italy
7 AGLUM KARLSSON, Marcus Sweden
8 STRAKHOV, Dmitry Russian Federation
9 HERKLOTZ, Silvio Germany
10 JANSEN, Amund G Norway
36 CLARKE, Cormac Ireland same
50 SADLER, Jack Ireland same
67 MULLEN, Ryan Ireland same
80 FALLON, Thomas Ireland same
110 HAHESSY, Sean Ireland +5:02
DNF FOLEY, Dylan Ireland
(There were 176 starters and 62 abandoned)
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