McDermott planning for next year with Belgian road team and Irish backer

*Ellen McDermott was forced to relocated back to Ireland after racing was cancelled in Europe and said the domestic scene saved her season (Photo: Toby Watson)*

Ellen McDermott, the former national elite criterium champion, has extended her tenure with Isorex NoAqua Ladies Cycling Team, the Belgian road outfit.

McDermott
competed in the team’s colours this year in Europe before the Covid-19 pandemic
hit.

The 32-year-old will
split her time between a number of countries next year and when racing in
Ireland or Britain she will compete in the colours of UK-based Team Boompods.

She has also secured a local sponsor in the shape of KMK Metals Recycling in Tullamore, Offaly, which supported her racing programme this year.

McDermott, like most riders in the sport, was forced to endure a trying season this year due to the pandemic playing havoc with her racing plans.

Riding in the colours of Team Boompod. McDermott will race with that squad in Ireland and Britain next year and with Isorex NoAqua Ladies Cycling Team in Europe

However, she
still came away from the interrupted campaign with some very solid results,
including at the National Road Championships promoted by Newcastle West CC in
October.

McDermott took
bronze just behind winner Lara Gillespie and runner-up, and elite TT champ, Eve
McCrystal.

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It was the second
time in McDermott’s career that she had been on the podium at the road
nationals having also taken bronze in Wexford in 2017 when Lydia Boylan took
the title.

McDermott has one national on the road in her palmares having won the criterium crown last year in Co Galway.

*Ellen McDermott, third in line, riding La Samyn in Belgium before the pandemic intervened (Photo: Paul Hinninck)*

This season she
started the campaign strongly in Belgium at Le Samyn des Dames, before
the pandemic intervened. She later went on to take the Leinster road race crown
as well as taking bronze in the nationals.

“I kicked off the 2020 season with great legs after a
tough training camp with Isorex Ladies Team,” she said of a promising beginning
this year.

“First up was the Belgian classics and it was great to
see that my switch to full-time bike ride was paying off.

“When we all had to travel back home initially I thought
we’d bounced back on the Continent in a couple of weeks. But as it happens I
never made it back to Belgium because of the cancellation of my races due to
Covid-19.

“The Irish calendar saved the day and I was so grateful
to get the opportunity to race in the Irish (criterium) championship stripes at
Mondello Park,” she said, adding the Leinster champs gold and nationals bronze
were the highlights of 2020.

She said she was now looking forward to the season ahead,
racing the pro scene in Europe and mixing that with events in Ireland and the
UK.