Now close to the end of his time in the U23 category, Jack Wilson is preparing for what he believes will be a make or break year with An Post-Chainreaction (Photo: George Doyle)
By Brian Canty
Irish U23 international Jack Wilson believes his training and general condition is ahead of where it was this time last year as he works towards a “make or break” season with An Post-Chainreaction.
The 22-year-old Jordanstown man is currently in Spain logging the miles with former teammate Sam Bennett.
They will link up with the former’s Belgian-based Continental squad on December 7th for their first training camp ahead of the forthcoming season.
Wilson is as motivated as he’s ever been, but said with racing still a long way off the focus is on getting quality miles in to shore up his general condition.
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On the front: Wilson now has plenty of experience riding major races against some of the biggest teams in the world.
“It’s just base miles; riding long climbs and rolling along chatting,” he explained of the goal from his current block of training.
“I probably do between four and six hours a day and a rest day would be around two hours with a coffee stop.
“But I’m still not doing any more than 20 hours a week.
“We ride the climbs steady-hard and the rest of the time me and Sam just talk.
Winning the U23 national title in a three-up mid-field sprint from Cormac Clarke and Conor Dunne.
“It’s brilliant because we just bounce off each other, give each other dog’s abuse and have great craic.
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“It makes the hours go by much quicker.
“Where we are is ideal for training, we found a road straight out of the hotel we’re staying at that climbs for 15 to 20 minutes into the country.
“And the weather has been brilliant so it makes it easy to get the miles in.”
Looking pensive at the Kreiz Breizh Elites stage race in France in August where he took a career-best 4th overall (Photo: Andréa Quémener)
Wilson added his efforts are firmly fixed on the racing that lies ahead into the New Year.
"Hopefully all this work will set me up for a good season,” he said. “It's make or break for me."
As well as base miles, he is also working off the bike.
“I do a bit of core work in the evening but that’s about it, I can’t motivate myself to stretch even though I know how good it is.
Riding the Tour of Britain in September; he would battle to the finish despite a nasty crash early in the race (Photo: Larry Hickmott – VeloUK.net)
“Next year I want to get as much out of myself as I can, and improve in every aspect.
"I think I’m a bit ahead of where I was last year in terms of my fitness so that’s good.
“Then again, that’s just my guess because I go on feel.
"I’m not sure how I stack up on my power files and I don’t understand them anyway,” he said, adding his coach Kenny Wilson analyses the numbers back at base in Epic Coaching.
"To me power is just a number. I tend to go back to feel and look at my numbers the end of the day.”
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