Mark Dowling has enjoyed a superb few weeks, representing Ireland for the first time and winning a string of top-quality races including last Friday's National Criterium Championships, above. While the season might be winding down for some, Dowling has plenty more goals (Photo: www.jimmymcelroy.com – follow Jimmy on Facebook and Twitter)
By Brian Canty
Mark Dowling was crowned national criterium champion in Claremorris on Friday night and followed that up with victory in the Beechmount Cup on Saturday.
He travelled south to Cork yesterday for the Dan O’Donovan Memorial but said the fatigue of so much travelling in the preceding 48 hours ruled him out of contention to challenge for a hat-trick of wins.
It’s been a fairly hectic couple of weeks for the DID Dunboyne man during which he’s represented Ireland for the first time.
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“I’ll race out the season now here and maybe go to Belgium then for a few races,” he said of his plans in the months ahead.
“I’ve the final round of the crit series (SEAT Super 7) this Thursday, there’s a few races north and south and after that I’ll head back to Lanzarote for an eight-week training block before Taiwan,” he added.
Taiwan is where he is hoping to win a race he believes he could have won last year; the lucrative Taiwan KOM Challenge.
Last year’s winner, John Ebsen of Denmark, won €30,000 and a contract with Lampre Merida and that’s what Dowling is chasing.
The Taiwan KOM Challenge is a race Dowling (right, with red and white shoes) really wants to win this year and he will head to Lanzarote to train for it when the racing season ends in Ireland. He was 10th there last year and believes "100 per cent" he can win this time around.
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“That’ll be one of my main aims of the season,” he said of the race where success could bring attention from foreign teams.
“I’ll spend two months training for that because I want to go there with the legs to win and I’m 100 per cent convinced I can.”
For now, Dowling is still savouring his win in the criterium championships, which he adds to his national hill climb title of four years ago.
“I’d been close enough to winning before,” he recalled of his bronze from the 2013 crit champs in Cork.
“I knew I was capable but the race was being controlled by ASEA with Neil Delahaye, Shaw and Chris Reilly and by iTap.
“Any attacks were being reeled in and the course was easy so everyone was sitting in and no one was getting dropped,
“I was getting worried with 10 laps to go; I was thinking about taking a flier but I saw there would be no point.
“I just did one move with five minutes to go, it was my only opportunity so I rode flat-out for five minutes. It was my only move of the night.
“It was brilliant to come in on my own, the field was small but it was strong. So I’d actually rank it as one of the better wins this year.”
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