Irish junior cycling champion Tom Moriarty to race in Europe | Sticky Bottle

Tom Moriarty in his new Isorex Cycling Team Irish champion's kit for his European racing in the year ahead. The teenager will also remain an O'Leary Stone Kanturk rider when competing on the domestic scene in 2020

Tom Moriarty, the Irish junior road race champion, will ride in Europe with a Belgian team this year while remaining as an O’Leary Stone Kanturk athlete while racing at home.

Moriarty
(17) was unveiled as an Isorex Cycling Team rider at an event attended by about
700 people in Flanders at the weekend.

He
also got the opportunity to recon the course of the junior Tour of Flanders
with his new team mates.

His new Belgian team for his European racing in the year ahead counts Mathieu van der Poel among its former stars alongside Thomas De Gendt and Pieter Serry.

*Tom Moriarty at the team launch on Saturday and atop the Bosberg climb during the team's recon of the Tour of Flanders course*

Moriarty told stickybottle the team had
29 juniors for the season ahead, adding the atmosphere in the Flandrian outfit was
very friendly with no pressure.

He believed it would be an ideal place
to gain experience while also remaining firmly part of the O’Leary Stone
Kanturk set-up at home under the watchful eye of Dan Curtin.

“I’m
hoping to ride a few Belgian classics early on then possibly a stage race in
the Ardennes and the Italian classics at the end of the year,” he said.

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Moriarty is not the only national champion in the team as Edvin Lovidius, the Swedish TT champion, is also in what is an otherwise mainly Belgian line-up.

“There is also a Continental team, Tarteletto–Isorex, for seniors. It’s just a great opportunity for me to meet new people, make friends in different countries," Moriarty said.

“And it’s a chance to really learn how to race on the Continent so I can then look for results.

“I’ve really enjoyed laying the foundations around the roads of west Kerry this winter,” he added of going into his second year as a junior.

Last
season Moriarty took a series of wins at home, the best of which came in the
National Road Championships where he took victory from a quality breakaway on a
very hard course in Derry.

He was also part of the national
team during the year, including at the Junior Tour of Ireland.

Moriarty also raced in the European Road Championships in Holland as well as riding junior Nations Cup races in France, Belgium and Germany.