Having really nailed his TT performance over the last two years and taken some very impressive road race results, including a Junior Tour of Ireland stage, Liam O'Brien has now signed a contract with a new development squad set up by a World Tour team.
The 18-year-old, riding with Fermoy Cycling Club, really confirmed his potential this year with 12th at junior Liège-Bastogne-Liège, 4th in the TT and the overall at the Sint Martinusprijs Kontich UCI 2.1 stage race in Belgium and 11th in the junior TT at the World Road Championships in Glasgow.
And now he has signed a contract with Lidl Trek's new development team; the Irish teenager among its first batch of eight new riders announced today, as set out below.
The team will be registered at Continental level and will be based in Deinze, Belgium, where the Trek Factory Racing service course is located. And accommodations will be made for the young riders, including an option to stay at an apartment in Girona, Spain, where they can enjoy pristine training roads.
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The development team will be managed by Markel Irizar, who has headed up Lidl-Trek’s talent scouting operation since retiring as a rider in 2019.
“I’m gonna be the chain between the devo team and the World Tour team,” Irizar said. “If (Lidl-Trek general manager) Luca (Guercilena) tells me, ‘Markel, do we have a super good climber?’ I can say, ‘We have it.’ If he says ‘I need someone who can pull, do you have a strong rider with 80 kilos who can pull for five hours?’ I can say, ‘We have it.’ We need to have the resources that the team will need in the future.
“We need the performance and we want to win races, of course. But it’s super important that we need ambassadors of the values of the brands that are sponsoring the team,” Irizar added.
“I want riders that come ready to learn everything. When we win, we enjoy it, but we respect that there are others that aren’t so happy. And when we don’t win, we don’t find excuses. We need to know that we are here because of the fans.”
The first eight riders in the team are:
- Tim Torn Teutenberg (Germany, 20 years old)
- Mats Wenzel (Luxembourg, 20 years old)
- Axandre Van Petegem (Belgium, 21 years old)
- Kristian Egholm (Denmark, 19 years old)
- Nils Aebersold (Switzerland, 20 years old)
- Louis Leidert (Germany, 18 years old)
- Liam O’Brien (Ireland, 18 years old)
- Patrick Frydkjaer (Denmark, 18 years old)
