"I'd won some national titles in Ireland, so when we emigrated I just kept it going"

Robert-Jon McCarthy was born in Cork and lived in Fermoy until he was aged 14 years. He's making a splash in his adoptive Australia but will soon be riding in the colours of An Post-Chainreaction. Seen here (left) with cousin and Irish international Eoin McCarthy in Belgium last year.

By Gerard Cromwell

With yesterday’s final stage of the Herald Sun Tour in Australia cancelled due to intense heat and the threat of bush fires in the area, 19-year-old Cork born Robert Jon McCarthy will be remembered as the last person to win a stage of this year’s race.

McCarthy sprinted to the biggest victory of his career on what proved to be the final stage, taking some big scalps on the way to become only the third Irish-born stage winner at the event, after Aidan Duff in 2001 and David McCann in 2005.

“The stage was just controlled by the GreenEdge team and came back together with 5km to go,” said McCarthy of his biggest ever victory.

“The lead into the sprint was a big fight for position and in the sprint itself I came from a little bit behind, maybe 6th wheel. I hit the front about 200m to go and got a gap and held on to the line.

“I was a little bit surprised to win. I knew I was good for a top five or a podium maybe but to actually take the win was pretty amazing.”

His cousins David and Eoin McCarthy still call Fermoy home and currently ride for the Nicolas Roche Performance Team in Ireland and the Terra Footwear squad in Belgium respectively.

Robert Jon’s family left Fermoy for the climate and lifestyle of Adelaide when he was just 14 years. But even by then, he had already made his mark at underage level here.

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“I was already racing back in Ireland anyway and won a few national championships, so I just kept at it over here,” he says.

“The first time I rode for Australia was at the Youth Commonwealth Games. I got selected for that through results in Australian national races. Then the following year I made the junior worlds team in Valkenburg after I won the national road race championships here.”

Having helped Caleb Ewan to a silver medal in Worlds, last year McCarthy spent much of the summer with the Australian U23 national team, taking in the Tour of Azerbaijan before spending a month racing in Belgium and riding the Tour of Korea on the way back to Australia.

This year he will return to Belgium for his first full season with the An Post-Chainreaction squad.

“So far, An Post is going really well,” he says.

“The move came about through (cycling agent) Andrew McQuaid towards the end of last year. It seems like a really professional outfit and Kurt (Bogaerts) has been great. I just want to learn as much as possible with the team this year and try and get up in a few more bunch sprints.”