Liam Crowley had a breakthrough season in 2024, with several strong wins and a Team Ireland debut, and now the 22-year-old has been rewarded with a contract at UCI Continental level.
Crowley, who rode for UCD CC last year and previously for O'Leary Stone Kanturk, has now graduated from University College Dublin, and has been free, since his final exams last summer to focus more on his cycling.
Though he has a place to do a Masters at the Smurfit Business School in UCD, he has decided to defer it so he can throw himself fully into training and racing in the year ahead.
He will compete for Austrian UCI Conti outfit Team Vorarlberg next year; a team that rides events such as Tour of Rhodes (2.2), Tour du Loir et Cher (2.2), Ronde de l'Oise (2.2), Oberösterreich Rundfahrt (2.2), Volta a Portugal em Bicicleta (2.1), Tour of İstanbul (2.1) and a host of other stage races and one-day events across Europe.
Advertisement
Related News
One of the Irishman's new team mates is Alexander Konychev, the former Team BikeExchange-Jayco WorldTour rider whose father is Dmitry Konychev, who won four stages in both the Tour and Giro.
Crowley's new contract, which he signed last month after contacting the team himself some time ago, offers him a fantastic opportunity to develop. And that chance, with an established and respected team, comes after a breakthrough campaign this year.
He won the Coombes Connor Memorial, Bobby Power Memorial while also making the winning breakaway on stage 1 at Dornan Rás Mumhan before finishing 9th in the final general classification. He was then selected onto the Irish team for Rás Tailteann while later winning the Ballivor GP.
Crowley then took himself off to Spain for Vuelta a Madrid, which he followed up with a racing stint in Belgium in August before finishing 4th in the elite men's Cycling Ireland rankings for 2024.
His success in 2024 followed on from an injury-hit period due to a lingering arm injury from a racing crash in 2022, with illness then hampering his progress during the 2023 season.
