Rían McCrystal (Bear Cycling) has won three Irish titles this weekend at the National Road Youth Championships in Co Cork and the Louth teenager is also celebrating some big team news.
He has joined the growing number of young Irish riders now jumping from the domestic youth scene to European racing, as first-year juniors, after securing a place with the Cannibal-Victorious U19 Development Team next year.
McCrystal has been one of the best riders in the country in recent years in the youth ranks, and by going to Cannibal Victorious for next season, when he will be a junior, he is opting for a professional set-up with access to many of the best junior races in Europe.
Seth Dunwoody followed the same path, jumping from his club, Shelbourne Orchard CC, to Cannibal-Victorious U19 for his first year as a junior in 2023 and hasn't looked back since. He raced his two junior years with the team, taking big wins, and has since progressed to the U23 Bahrain Victorious Development Team.
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Both the junior and U23 teams are part of the same network of squads that feed riders into the Bahrain Victorious World Tour team, with the U23 riders eligible for call ups to the World Tour team for different races under UCI rules.
McCrystal is likely to remain based in Ireland and travel back and forward to Europe for racing next year. Indeed, he has already had a taste of international racing. He went to Belgium for a block of events in Belgium in recent weeks - winning one race, in Drieslinter.
He was also part of the Irish team that raced in the road races and TTs last month at the European Youth Olympics in North Macedonia.
On the home scene his weekend he was one of the star performers at the National Road Youth Championships in Co Cork, where he won gold in the U16 road race, TT and criterium.
