Stephen Halpin battling the hills of Donegal in Rás 2012; he'll lead the new Bikeworx team in 2014 (Photo: Darren Crawford)
By Gerard Cromwell
After the collapse of his third division Polygon Sweet Nice continental team recently, Skerries rider Stephen Halpin will return to racing on the domestic scene in 2014 and will ride for the newly formed Bikeworx team in Celbridge.
Halpin will join former Sean Kelly team member and Bikeworx owner Ciaran Kelly on the squad, which also includes Geoff Sheehan, Derek Cunningham, Neil O’Leary and Enda Connolly.
“I know it’s only Ciaran’s first year back but when he was a junior he was one of the best in the world,” Halpin said of Kelly’s return.
“I’ve trained with him a bit recently and he’s going really well so I think he’s going to be very strong. It’s a small enough team with a varied group of guys but I think we will do okay.”
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Although left in the lurch with the demise of Polygon Sweet Nice, Halpin hopes to continue training and racing full time in 2014.
“Financially, I can get by for the next year, so I’ll still be able to ride full time,” he said.
“Training-wise and performance-wise I hope to be better than last year. Bikeworx are planning to look after me and give me the equipment and stuff that I need next season, so I want to be able to perform to a good level and pay them back what they’ll be giving me from a sponsorship point of view.
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“I still intend to ride the Rás and Rás Mumhan and win as many domestic races as I can and be as competitive in the Rás as I can. But that could all change depending on what pops up in the meantime. I’d love to ride for Ireland again too. Hopefully they’ll have a team in the Rás next year.”
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For the moment, however, dreams of signing for a top professional team have been shelved with Halpin now focusing on making the grade when the new batch of Garda recruits are selected in coming months.
“It’s over for now,” he says of his professional ambitions.
“There’s not much you can do. When you see world class riders like Matt Brammeier having to take a step down it really shows how difficult a situation the sport is in at the minute.
“I’m also working with Dig Deep Coaching and I’m pretty busy at the moment with a lot of clients so that takes up a lot of time. People think I’m full time and all I do is train and sit around all day but I spend a lot of time coaching.
“The Garda have opened their recruitment now, which is something I’ve waited a long time for. I’ve always had my eyes on that and even if I was racing abroad I would have put everything aside for that.
“So that’s come up and I’ll go for that. I know they’re expecting over 30,000 applicants for 300 places so to make it would be like winning the lotto. If that doesn’t come through, I’ll look at college but to be honest I don’t think I’m cut out for college.”
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