Standing tall: Conor Dunne has brought his season to a close with the performance of his life at the World Championships.
By Brian Canty
Conor Dunne said Sunday’s experience of riding in the break at the World Championships will live with him for the rest of his life.
The An Post Chainreaction man justified his selection in the two-man team alongside Sam Bennett by going clear in the day’s early break and staying out front for over half the race.
“The team gave me the freedom to go in the move which I was really grateful for so I just stayed attentive at the beginning and when the flag dropped I just hit out,” he recalled.
“I think I was brought back but then I followed Jesse Sergeant and Ben King in the next move and that was the break.
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“I looked back to see if we had the gap and when I saw we did I knew it was worth persisting so we just started chopping through straight away.”
Also in the eight-man move were Sergei Tvetcov (Romania), Carlos Alzate (Colombia), Andriy Khripta (Ukraine), Ivan Stevic (Serbia), and Park Sung Baek (Korea).
“We never got a massive time gap because the Dutch team were making the race difficult behind. But we all rode and it was like that then for the rest of the day.”
Dunne absolutely piling on the pressure during the break in the World Championships yesterday. “I think I was brought back but then I followed Jesse Sergeant and Ben King in the next move and that was the break.”
The move would eventually break up around the seventh of 14 laps but Dunne always knew his time out front would always be short-lived.
So he enjoyed the experience as much as he could.
“It was an epic atmosphere; I’ve never experienced anything like it before," he said.
“The noise on the climbs was actually deafening and the Irish had a large part to play in that.
“There was an Irishman on every corner telling me something.
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“I had to concentrate on just keeping the bike upright because at its loudest it felt like the noise would push me off! I won’t forget that for a long time.
Conor Dunne put in a great ride on the Tour of Britain just before the Worlds and continued that attacking run in Richmond.
“At times going up the the cobbles I had to duck people’s heads while riding in the gutter I could smell the beer from their breath. It was electric.”
When he was eventually caught Dunne slotted into a group of 30 guys off the front.
But then it all came back together and when the field hit the climbs he hadn’t the legs to stay with the fresher riders and a whole new wave of attacks started again.
But for Dunne it was a job well done and an end to an amazing month, though he would abandon.
“It’s been an awesome few weeks from Britain to this and it’s given me a lot of confidence in myself that I can perform at this level," he said.
“Having said that, it’s also shown me how high the level is and I’ve a lot of work to do to get to where I want to be.
“I’ve had some tough times and a lot of moments where I’ve been lying in the ditch mid-race or coming to terms with a poor race in the back of the camper questioning life.
"But this goes a long way to make up for the bad days.”
He’ll take a break now for the month of October and though declining to comment on where he’ll be next year, he said he can’t wait to get going again.
“I’ll take a mental break now for a while but I know won’t motivation won’t be a problem when I do start up again for next year.”
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