On the front: Connor McConvey said his relationship with Synergy Baku came to a natural end "from both sides" and was hopeful his new Belgian pro team would bring a fresh start (Photo: George Doyle)
By Brian Canty
Connor McConvey said he’s relishing the prospect of racing a more European-based programme next year, having recently signed for Belgian Continental outfit Team 3M for 2015.
The Belfast man spent the last two seasons with the Azerbaijan-backed Synergy Baku squad, competing in many far flung places.
But he said his dealings with them had reached “its natural end” this year.
“I’ll be following a fairly similar programme to the one I had with An Post, maybe a few more French stage races,” he said.
“The guy running this new team has been at it for over 25 years and it looks like a brilliant set-up; good coaching set-up and the staff are great, so it looks pretty good.
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“I’ll be doing races that people actually look at,” he continued.
“I should be doing the An Post Rás, a few races in the UK and hopefully the Tour of Britain as well if we get an invite.
“The Tour of Belgium as well; that’ll be one of the biggest goals for the year, but we’ll play it by ear.”
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The highlight with Synergy Baku; winning the climbers' classification at the Tour de Azerbaijan last year.
McConvey endured a difficult 2014, with the year finishing abruptly and far sooner than he’d have liked.
“It just came to its natural end with Baku, from both sides,” said the 26 year-old.
“They were having a change of direction and the amount of international riders were cut down on the team, and that sort of changed the landscape.
"I’m quite eager to get back into racing in Europe.
“This year was crap for me because I got sick at the wrong times and crashed at the Rás, so I had a reduced programme,” he explained.
“I was good in periods but I didn’t really have any results. I knew the first half of the year was crap so I drew a line under that.
"But in June I started to work towards the end of the year, starting with the Commonwealth Games.
"I knew I had to do something but as it turned out I had no more races (with Baku) so I didn’t get a chance to show myself.
"That’s just the way it is. It gave me a chance to do some other stuff, give me time to decide what I wanted to do. It wasn’t that bad.”
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