Connor McConvey was very active up the road at last year’s Rás and is looking to a strong 2013
By Brian Canty
Connor McConvey has spoken about the “massive stress” of not knowing where his cycling career was taking him at the end of last season when the then An Post-Sean Kelly team released him.
McConvey (24) was facing an uncertain future because not only had he failed to achieve any noteworthy results in his comeback year with the Belgian-based team, but by the time he knew he was being made redundant some teams already had their 2013 rider roster filled.
But the Belfast native was helped by David McCann who – along with former British Team Sky pro Jeremy Hunt - knew of his talent. And when the UCI Continental Synergy Baku cycling project was being formed, McConvey was enlisted by the aforementioned duo, much to his relief.
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“There was massive stress back then alright,” he said.
“You can only stay positive for so long but I did know that all the deals weren’t done so that gave me hope. It’s only World Tour level where the deals are all done early. Generally at Continental level there’s loads of people having no contracts in December.”
“Everyone around me was always saying something would come through but sometimes you do get worried. There are days when you get worried but generally speaking, I always had belief and I got sorted relatively early so there was always that confidence.”
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“I had a few offers in the end as it turned out. But it was more difficult because I didn’t have an agent. The way a lot of it works is having contacts and having people who put good words in for you, especially if you don’t have results. I had a few results but nothing major and it was my belief that I had more potential than my results showed. So I was relying on people who know me and have seen me racing to put in good words for me to get me in, which is where David helped.”
Leaving An Post, he said, was something that didn’t surprise him in the least.
“I could kind of guess throughout the year from the way it was going. Personally I didn’t have a good year with sickness and stuff like that but I found out quite late and it put me in a very difficult position of trying to find something else, but it’s bike racing. Stuff like that happens. You just have to move on. I think the key thing for me, which I always believed, was a lot of people see An Post as the only option for Irish talent coming through and that’s certainly not the case. There’s many avenues to go down."
But he had much praise for the team where he served his pro cycling apprenticeship.
“An Post was great for me because I came from mountain biking and I got a schooling in road racing at a really high level. My third race in my first season was at Het Volk and it continued at that level for a long time. So the schooling and the experience I got out of that was really high and brought me up really quickly. I appreciate everything they did for me. They gave me a ride after I stopped for six or seven months after my first season in 2010. But it was time to move on for my own career and try to score a big pro contract at some stage.”
So it’s a fresh start and something he can’t wait to get stuck into.
“That’s the biggest thing – it is just like a real motivator to be starting again. I’m now in a team where there’s a real belief from the management and from the whole squad. And there’s a real desire to win. And for me, I’m now doing a programme where I can win races, which is the biggest thing. There’s still a lot in me because I’m only 24.”
“It’s a real exciting project in terms of the whole ethos behind it and there’s a real opportunity for that to grow. We’ll be racing in Asia for the early part of the year and hopefully in Europe then. Everyone on the team is really looking forward to hitting the ground running and I can’t wait. The thing about the team that I’ve found so far is the approach is different and more full-on and more professional than anything I’ve ever dealt with before, be that in mountain bike teams or An Post. In terms of just the expectation and the advice and the help you’re given if it continues for the year it should be a super project."
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