Action from this year’s Errigal Youth Tour where the best of Ireland’s youth riders were in action
By Brian Canty
The first official 'get together' of the new boys FBD Talent Team 2020 and girls Neenan Travel Talent Team 2020 takes place in Dublin this Sunday when riders and their parents will attend a skills session and series of lectures in the Green Isle Hotel, Newland Cross.
The day will see a nutritionist and sports psychologist speak to the parents of the riders about what being part of the team entails in terms of preparation, while the riders themselves will be based in Corkagh Park where numerous skills sessions will take place.
Boys’ coach Martin O’Loughlin said he was excited about getting the riders together and spoke about what they can expect to learn over the next year while in the programme.
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“Things like nutrition are very important for riders and with that in mind we have the privilege of working with nutritionist Beth McCloskey who herself comes from a cycling background. She asked all the riders to fill in a food diary and we’ll be looking at what they’re eating as well as talking to the parents and getting them to improve the eating habits of the riders.”
“One of the things we’re going to be doing next year is taking a home economics teacher with us to races. Just to show them basic life skills that they’ll need to pick up sooner or later if they go abroad.”
“This is where some guys might have struggled in the past. Like, guys who would’ve gone out to ACBB and those teams, a foreign country and shops they wouldn’t have seen before and seeing food they wouldn’t know what it looked or tasted like. In some cases guys would have struggled with those kinds of things. It’s so important to know how to cook and clean and do the basics.”
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“Some of these guys have never shopped so all these little things we’ll be looking to address. It’s all part of a learning experience.”
An Post Sean Kelly professional Sean Downey will also lend a hand this weekend.
“Sean is very professional in everything he does,” said O’Loughlin.
“He’s very much into routine and is good with his bike and looking after it and himself. He knows how to do lots of things. Also he won’t dress cycling up or sugarcoat what life is like in the pro ranks. There’s no point in us dressing it up as something it’s not. At the end of the day, even if you have exceptional talent, you need to have a lot of breaks go your way.”
O’Loughlin was keen to stress too that the door is never closed on riders who haven’t made this draft of TT riders.
“We don’t cast people on the scrapheap and the door is always open,” he said.
“We’ll be watching guys throughout the year. Guys don’t mature at the same level, a guy now who might be much stronger than the rest could be so because he went through a growth spurt and he happens to be at a higher stage of his development.”
“In two years time some of the other guys could have caught up and even pass out fellas who would traditionally have been stronger. The door is open as long as they’ve applied to be in the team.”
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