Connor McConvey has not yet found a team for 2017 and is facing the prospect of having to return to the amateur ranks or retire, if he doesn't find something in the next weeks (Photo: Martine Verfaille)
By Brian Canty
Irish rider Connor McConvey is facing the grim reality that he may not have a team for 2017 after An Post ChainReaction decided not to retain him for next season.
The 28-year old Belfast man has had two stints with the team, the most recent being the season just gone while he also spent time with them between 2010 and 2012.
The former An Post Rás runner-up - having finished level on time with winner Marcin Bialoblocki three years ago - has nothing yet confirmed for the coming year and has admitted he’s at a bit of a loose end about what to do next.
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“I was hoping for something for next year and had some contact with a couple of teams," he said.
McConvey takes 4th in the road race at the National Championships in June. Nicolas Roche won solo followed by, left to right, Matt Brammeier, Michael O'Loughlin, McConvey and Damien Shaw (Photo: Toby Watson)
"But because the market is flooded with riders with World Tour experience I’m competing in a serious pool for limited spaces in teams.
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“I want to stay full-time and competing because I know I was close this year with the level I had, but it is the way it is.
“What happened with One Pro Cycling just goes to show how fickle the sport can be, but I won’t throw in the towel just yet.
“I'm training as I usually would for next year in the hope I can get a team but if it so happens that I don't, so be it and I'll get over it.
"I'm not going to sit about and moan, but I still have the motivation to race and train.”
McConvey has a great record in the Rás and the big Belfast man could still win that race and others like it if he finds a place on a team. It's a mark of how tight things are in pro cycling right now that somebody of his ability and experience is still seeking a berth in the peloton for next year (Photo: Toby Watson)
He was having a very good season until he crashed and broke his wrist at the 1.1-ranked Arnhem Veenendal race in the Netherlands in August and that pretty much ended his season.
It ruled him out for selection for the European and World championships while he also missed a number of key ‘shop window’ races like the Tour of Britain in September.
Earlier in the season he put some good performances together in stage races like the Tour du Normandie, Fleche du Sud and Boucles de la Mayenne but the big result he yearned for eluded him.
He took 4th in the national championships in June after spending the day up the road in the break but those results haven’t, as yet, secured him a berth for next year.
McConvey spent two years with the Synergy Baku Cycling Project and that was followed by a year with Team 3M last year before returning to An Post-ChainReaction for 2016 and now having departed the Irish Continental level squad.
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