Jack Wilson (second here) in action in Belgium last week
Former national junior road race champion Jack Wilson appears to have made a seamless transition to U23 racing in recent weeks and has been selected for his first Irish Nations Cup team.
The 18-year-old from Co Antrim will ride the ZLMTour in Holland with the Irish team next month. He said while he was happy to have been picked, he was a little disappointed not to be selected for more of the Nations Cup races and will now travel home over Easter to ride the’P&O Ferris Tour of the North’.
He told stickybottle that while his early season had been somewhat hit by illness, he was happy so far with his transition from the junior ranks to the U23 races this year with his ‘UCSCrabbe–Performance Voo’ team in Belgium.
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”I've only done four races so far; I got sick after Brussel-Zepperen because it was so cold and I didn’t have enough clothes on,” he said from his Limburg base.
”I feel I’ve made the step up to Under 23 pretty well. To be honest it’s no harder than the junior racing in Belgium, just longer. If anything it’s nearly been easier because last year being a second year junior I had to try and make the race, so it was hard. But being a first year Under 23 you can get away with doing a bit less in the early season races until the form comes and then try to make the race. Plus, I had a really good winter so it’s nice to see it paying off.”
”My first race was the Beverbeek Classic; a 180km race with the pros, with teams like Topsport, Landbouwkrediet and also Conti teams likeRabobank and An Post. I finished 45th so I was pretty happy with that.”
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”The second race then was Brussel-Zepperen; it was a nightmare because I got so cold. I couldn’t move on the bike and just came in at the front of the bunch in 27th. Then the sickness hit me and I missed a weeks racing. I tried to race the next week and was still suffering from being sick so I didn’t finish that one.”
"The race on Sunday just gone; there was 303 starters. It was crazy but class craic. It was a bunch sprint and was messy so I just rolled over the line in 20th. I didn’t want to get caught up in the sprint; there was maybe a lack of balls on my part!”
He said he was now looking forward to the ZLM Tour on April 14th.
”We’ll see how that goes. The form is on its way back so hopefully I’ll have good shape for the upcoming races. I don't really have any set GC ambitions for the Tour of the North. I will just take every stage as it comes and see how it goes.”
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