After a good start to the road season, Ryan Sherlock will transfer to the mountain bike for the European Marathon Championhips in Ballyhoura on Sunday.
By Gerard Cromwell
Ryan Sherlock is one of a handful of Irish riders due to line up in the men’s elite race at the European Marathon Mountain Bike Championships in Ballyhoura on Sunday.
A four time Irish national marathon champion, Sherlock had high hopes for the event until just a few weeks ago when he crashed out of the An Post Ras in the final sprint at the end of stage four.
“The European marathon championships have been a goal for me for a couple of years,” he says.
“I trained with some of the best marathon riders in the world, former world champions and European champions, over the last couple of winters, so I knew how I matched up with them.
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“I’m not nearly as strong as them or technically as good but I knew I wasn’t too far off them so I had high goals for this race.
“The Ras was going to be very important in the lead up to this race but coming into the sprint finish on stage four there was a bit of a stall on the right hand side.
“I was sprinting on the left and a rider crossed wheels and I hit the deck at 65kph.”
Although he rolled across the line to finish the stage, Sherlock abandoned the race the next morning and has spent much of the time since then trying to recover form his injuries.
“I thought that I’d be able to start the next day but the race doctor had a look at me the next morning and I wasn’t able to lift my left leg.
“It was very frustrating because it was the best form I’ve been in at the Ras. I felt very happy because I was cruising along the first couple of days and I thought the final three or four days, with the hillier terrain, would have suited me.
“I had to take a week off the bike after the crash. I was pretty banged up.
“The cuts and bruises were okay but the muscles in my legs were messed up. I got that sorted and then it was still... I could ride the road, but it’s only the last couple of days I could ride the mountain bike again.
“It’s not exactly what I’d hoped for leading up to the Europeans, so I’ve had to change my expectations.”
There will be plenty of obstacles to overcome in Sunday's Europeans.
Sunday’s elite men’s race is a whopping 93km of off-road riding with 2,199 metres of climbing thrown in for good measure and Sherlock admits it is a lot different to road racing and indeed cross country mountain biking.
“It’s very hard, the most difficult racing I’ve ever done,” he says.
“It’s not like a road race where, if it’s a very hard stage, your legs are exhausted and it’s physically draining. When you’re finished, it takes three or four days to recover.
“I remember doing the world championships a couple of years ago. I did six hours and 4,500 metres of climbing and was in a body bag for a couple of days after it.
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“Every single part of your body is exhausted and you have to be so focussed for the complete five or six hours that you’re mentally drained too.
Preparing for the championships has proven difficult in other ways too.
“There’s quite a lot of climbing in it. I’ve been racing in Belgium this year where there’s not a lot of hills, so the last few weeks I’ve spent a lot of time just going up and down hills to work on my lower back and my strength.
“Of the four or five hours of the race on Sunday, I’ll probably spend 60pc of it out of the saddle. It’s just very hard on the body.
“Strength wasn’t really my problem but I needed to relearn the technique because I haven’t spent much time on the mountain bike in the last three years, maybe four or five times a year, so that was the hardest bit.
“Being inefficient on the trail is the biggest thing to overcome. That’s been my focus over the last five or six days.”
A four time national marathon champion, Sherlock knows what to expect on Sunday.
Based around the trail centre in Ballyhoura, the course for the championships is equal to the best in the world according to Sherlock and will give spectators great views of the action as the world’s best riders fly past.
“Ballyhoura is very, very good for this. I rode the course on Monday. It’s very difficult. It’s a fantastic location and as good as anything I’ve raced anywhere in the world.
“It’s got its own Irish-ness about it but it’s going to be a real test. It’ll be a very strong, very good technical rider who wins it.
“He’ll also have a bit of luck though as there are a lot of very pointy rocks and things to catch a rider out through mechanicals.
“A lot of times if you have a problem it can be a long way to the technical support area, so it might mean having to run or ride on a flat tyre for five or ten kilometres.
With large crowds of supporters from all over Europe expected in Ballyhoura at the weekend, he has some advice for Irish fans.
“Get there early, with plenty of time before the men’s race start. Have a good look at the map and move up the hill a little bit.
“We go through the main village three times every lap so there is good viewing there.
“Because of the time difference between the men’s and women’s race there will always be something going on.
"There are sections where you’ll be able to watch them pass in one direction, run up the hill a little bit more and then watch them come back down the other side.
“For someone who’s coming from mountain biking background, this has been on the to-do list for a long time.
"It’s something that hasn’t happened in Ireland before and it’s something that might be a while before it happens again.”
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