Having been victorious a number of times this year wearing his national champion's kit in the junior bunches at home and abroad, NRPT-Standard Life's Fintan Ryan has been forced by illness to withdraw from the defence of his title in Cork this weekend.
By Brian Canty
Reigning national junior road race champion, Fintan Ryan has been forced to withdraw from this weekend’s title showdown in Blarney after coming down with illness.
The Wicklow man, who won the title in Omagh last year, had been planning meticulously for a successful title defence but he has had to pull out, wisely opting to put his health first.
“It came on about two or three weeks ago but it didn't really start to get worrying until about one week ago,” said the NRPT-Standard Life man.
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“I felt a bit of a cough slowly coming on but I have asthma so it’s sometimes hard to tell if I’m getting sick or not.
“The doctor diagnosed a chest infection but then I started to get other strange symptoms and the antibiotics weren't working so they weren't sure.”
He added medical staff were unsure why his temperature was increasing so much and were concerned when he said he had been abroad recently.
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“They never really told me what I had or anything but started treating me as if I had pneumonia and since then I've been feeling much better,” he added.
“I don’t know how or where I got it — you can pick up anything on a plane or abroad especially with so many different nations about the place.”
Understandably, he said he was very disappointed to miss the time trial and road race this weekend.
“It’s terrible to not even be able to attempt to defend my title but I'll just need to keep the head high and make new goals.
“I was in no way expecting to win again with the strength in numbers in the juniors this year. But I know I would have had as good a chance as anyone and, being the defending champion, I wouldn't have let anyone take the title without a good hard fight for it.”
Ryan extended his best wishes to all of those riding this weekend. He hoped to be back on the bike very soon and was still hopeful of selection for the World Championships in Spain next month.
“Hopefully I'll be able to get the form back in time to show myself to the selectors, I'll certainly be one of the freshest of the juniors,” he said.
“There’s an incredible amount of people to pick from so I'm not going to put too much pressure on my body in the next few weeks; it'll be hard to make the cut.”
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