Wilson in the green of Ireland in France this year; he’ll wear another shade of green for An Post-Sean Kelly in 2013
Irish U23 international, Jack Wilson will ride for the An Post-Sean Kelly team next year after his signing was officially announced today, Thursday.
The team has also announced that the Irish trio of Ronan McLaughlin, Sam Bennett and Sean Downey will be riding with it again next year. However, Connor McConvey’s time with the squad has come to an end.
Wilson, a 19-year-old from Co Antrim, is a former national junior champion has been based in Belgium riding for UCS Crabbé Performance VOO in the past couple of seasons.
He underlined his progression this year by being selected on the national team for the U23 World Championships in Holland last month in his first year at that level.
Advertisement
Wilson’s signing for An Post-Sean Kelly had been well known in cycling circles in recent months, though he insisted just days ago in an interview with stickybottle that he had no team and faced the prospect of retuning to Ireland for next season.
Wilson joined An Post-Sean Kelly on its training camp in Calpe, Spain, last December as part of a familiarisation exercise.
His signing for the Irish-Belgian outfit will be welcomed by the cycling community as a key stage in the progression of a talented and popular rider.
Related News
An Post-Sean Kelly manager, Kurt Bogaerts said he has been impressed with Wilson but insisted his first year with the team would be a learning process.
“Jack is very young, but for his age he has a lot of ability and huge potential,” he said.
“I was impressed with him at our training camp last December and the Irish guys on the team spoke very highly of him at this year’s World Championships. He is already familiar with the Belgian and European style of racing so I think this will be a big help to him for the coming season”.
The team has today also announced the signing of World Omnium Champion Glenn O’Shea from Australia. News that he is joining the squad comes hot on the heels of New Zealand track and road specialists Aaron Gate and Shane Archbold confirming they would also ride for the men in green next year.
All three antipodeans will join the team a little later in the season as they will ride the World Track Championships in Belarus in February before switching their focus to the road campaign.
Bogaerts is hopeful that O’Shea can have an immediate impact once he starts on the road in early March.
“Glenn is a very exciting signing for us. He is current Omnium World Champion so he brings that winning mentality into the team and I expect him to play a big part in the year ahead. Glenn has also experienced road racing in Belgium before, so the transition will not be a problem for him”.
Topics
