Junior Heffernan competing for Ireland in triathlon before a hip injury led him to bike racing
The former Irish international triathlete turn road rider, Junior Heffernan has been killed in a bike race in the UK today, Sunday.
The 23-year-old, who represented Ireland at a number of major triathlete championships, died when he was in collision with a car during the Severn Bridge Road Race in Gloucestershire. He had previously raced with Carrick Triathlon Club.
British Cycling has released a statement on the tragedy. It reads: “Herbalife-Leisure Lakes rider Junior Heffernan died as the result of an incident in the 41st Severn Bridge Road Race near Olveston, Gloucestershire on Sunday, the race organiser has confirmed.”
“The 23-year-old from Yelverton in Devon was involved in a collision with a car on the third lap of the 10-lap race, which was immediately abandoned.”
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“British Cycling offers its condolences to the family and friends of Junior Heffernan. British Cycling president Brian Cookson said: ‘This is a tragedy which will profoundly sadden everyone associated with cycling in this country. My thoughts are with Junior's family and with his friends.’”
While based in Devon of late, the Heffernan family is Irish and the deceased had spent periods here and represented Ireland for a number of years. He had switched from triathlon to cycling, mainly due to running-related hip injuries.
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Well known Irish rider Eddy O’Donoghue, who has now switched to triathlon, said Heffernan had been in touch with him as recently as last month about lining up some Irish races to ride. He had already been named in his team’s roster for the P&O Ferries Tour of the North at Easter, and having spent periods based around Valentia he wanted to ride in a Kerry jersey in the Rás.
“I was trying to line him up for the Tour of Ulster then the Rás. His plan was that he wanted to do the Rás on the Kerry team. He was waiting on some early season results before we went ahead with those plans, and he was also talking about doing the Suir Valley Three Day as well in August and also maybe the Nationals before that.”
O’Donoghue said Heffernan had first contacted him around 18 months to two years ago and he was stunned to hear of his death today.
After moving from triathlon to cycling, Heffernan had ridden on the British scene last year and also in France, and was regarded in both countries as a promising rider. He was hopeful of making more of an impact with Herbalife this year.
Stickybottle understands that his family was originally from the Carrick-on-Suir area. He had most recently been based in Devon.
Before focusing exclusively on cycling, he had been a triathlete since his teenage years and had represented Ireland on numerous occasions, including at World and European championship level.
He had competed in the junior European duathlon championships in Scotland in 2007 and that year also did the junior European and World triathlon championships in Copenhagen and Hamburg respectively. He continued to compete at that level for Ireland in 2008 and 2009.
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