Philip Lavery enjoyed some very good form last year and is headed to France for 2013
The reigning U23 national road race champion, Philip Lavery has signed for a new team in France after deciding to move back to the Continent following a season with UK-based UCI Continental team Node4-Giordana.
The 22-year-old Dubliner will now ride in the colours of AC Bisontine, an elite team with its base in the city of Besacon in the Franche-Comté region in eastern France. The team has been a launching pad for some of the world’s best cyclists including Sean Kelly who signed for the French outfit back in 1977.
Lavery spent some of last year racing in Ireland but also spent time in the UK, Belgium and France riding in the colours of Node4-Girodana. His association with that team has now come to an end and having raced in the Ned Flanagan Trophy in Monasterevin, Co Kildare, last Sunday, he is just about to depart for France to take up his place on his new team.
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Before moving to Node4-Girodana for last year, he had spent the season of 2011 in Europe where he was based in Belgium riding for the An Post-Sean Kelly team.
He has enjoyed some very strong results, placing second in the Lincoln GP in the UK in 2010, taking the U23 classification jersey on the first stage of the An Post Rás last year and winning the U23 road race title in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, last summer.
His best display came in those championships, when he rode a very aggressive race to get into the winning breakaway, before pulling clear with Nicolas Roche (then Ag2r-La Mondiale) and Matt Brammeier (then Omega Pharma-Quickstep).
On home roads he also took a great victory in the Shay Elliott Memorial last year and is a former winner of the Tour of the North and won a bronze medal in the team pursuit at the Commonwealth Games in 2010. Lavery has also represented Ireland at U23 level on numerous occasions including at European and world championships, with his time in that age group having ended last year.
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