Felix English (Rapha Condor JLT) takes the Milk Race in Nottingham in June; the once three-week tour now back as a crit after a 20-year break from the calendar. The Irish road and track international definitely made a leap into the top tier of UK crit riding this year and hopes to progress further in 2014 (Photo: Andy Whitehouse)
By Brian Canty
Ireland’s Felix English will soon head to Australia for a three-month spell of training and racing with his UCI Continental-ranked team Rapha Condor JLT.
English, who turned 21 years recently, is now entering his second season with the UK-based team and following a superb 2013 campaign that saw him take some fine wins, he’s eagerly awaiting the start of 2014.
The Brighton-born U23 Irish international will race the Herald Sun Tour in South Australia as well as a clutch of the Bay Series criterium events in January along with fellow Irishman Jack Sadler, who joined the team in recent weeks.
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And English is hoping to hit the ground running, having excelled on the crit scene in the UK this past season.
“I went from not being able to finish the crits over in the UK to winning them and being consistently on or near the podium,” he said.
“I also had a few decent results in a couple of UCI races in France so I’ll be looking to do well from the start this season.”
He had planned to race the Tour of Britain back in September and was building nicely for it. But after such a long season, his body “crashed” the week before it, forcing him to end his season somewhat prematurely.
“The break was definitely a relief,” he said.
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“I'd held relatively good form all year but that last week and a half before the Tour of Britain; my body just crashed. But I was really happy with this season. I progressed a lot from 2012 and I've set myself up for hopefully better things in 2014.”
Chief among his goals is to move up to a bigger team.
“This time next year hopefully I'll have signed a contract with a bigger professional team. And I know to do that I have to keep winning. So hopefully next year I'm going to have more UCI road racing to help me get noticed more.”
His biggest asset is his finishing kick and he proved a real menace on several occasions this year, winning the Otley GP and the Milk Race in Nottingham, as well as taking a number of top 10 finishes in the Pearl Izumi Tour Series crits.
“Naturally I'll always be suited to those kinds of races; I'm small and I can sprint okay. My win in Otley I'm putting mainly down to having a couple of my best friends in the crowd so I was keen to impress,” he joked.
“One of the big things I learned this year was looking after yourself. I try to look after myself where I can and I think taking lots of rest throughout the season, particularly after the crit series, was really important.”
“But they’re so hard; when you're going well and getting up there at the finishes they're awesome. But when you're getting a kicking they're the worst things in the world.”
“But for me and the team, getting exposure is the biggest thing and the team was very happy with how we performed. We did what we set out to do at the beginning of the year - win individual rounds of the Tour Series and National Crit Series so that gives us confidence.”
“It can be hard, this life. But I absolutely love it. You just have to make so many sacrifices but I just like being different to everyone else - probably because I'm from Brighton.”
Highlights of English's win in Otley; absolutely nails winning move
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