Nicolas Roche (far right) with his and Philip Finegan's young charges at the launch of the 'Standard Life-Nicolas Roche Performance Team' in Carton House, Maynooth, earlier today.
By Gerard Cromwell
The Standard Life Nicolas Roche Performance Team was officially launched in Carton House, Maynooth, today.
The eight-strong junior team consists of junior national champion Liam Corcoran from Mayo, Cork duo Dylan Foley and David McCarthy, Dubliners Danny Bruton and Darragh Long, Antrim duo Matthew Teggart and Mark Downey and Wicklow’s Fintan Ryan.
“Most of the junior riders in the country applied for the team when we announced it last winter,” says team manager and former international Philip Finegan.
“We looked at the names for a few days and started contacting.... not necessarily the eight riders that got the best results in the previous years, but guys that we felt would have different qualities and guys that we felt would get on together. We then visited the parents, because it’s important to have the parents on board as well as they are the ones supporting the riders at home and will be bringing them to races.”
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“We now have a fantastic mix in the team and it’s working very well. We’re not putting the guys under a lot of pressure. We’re trying to have a lot of things done for them so that they just have to concentrate on riding their bikes, after their exams. The exams are the most important thing. All we ask them to do is try their best, we’re not asking for more than that.”
The squad was set up to help promising riders get through the often problematic junior stage of their careers and to continue in the sport with the hopes of turning the squad into an Irish-based professional team in years to come.
“One of the key stages in your career is at junior level,” said Roche at today’s launch.
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“There’s a lot of distraction when you’re a junior; the first girlfriends, the driving licence, your Leaving Cert and you don’t really know what you want to do. Will I go on the bike or will I go for a couple of drinks on a Friday evening? It’s much more fun to go for a few drinks on a Friday evening than to have to go out in the wet on a Saturday morning. We decided that if we started with a good set of juniors we might help the young lads want to continue in cycling.”
With a host of sponsors on board for the first year, the riders will have little to do except ride their bikes.
“Until now, we’ve had good U23 riders but they always seem to want to turn pro too quick and it can take them another three or four years to learn how a team works,” says Roche.
“At least when you have the juniors, okay they’re not pros, but putting them in the position that they don’t have to worry about the condition of their tyres or whatever, so they just have to ride their bike, already gives them a good start.”
Although the squad are all junior riders this year, Roche hopes the team will develop alongside its riders in the future.
“I think we had to try something and start something new. Obviously, and honestly, we didn’t make everybody happy but we’ve got tremendous support from the Irish cycling community. At first we thought about starting off with a pro team but realised that was a bit too ambitious,” said Roche.
“Then we spoke about an U23 team, but I think we need to work at the base of things first. There was already something being done at underage level, with the Talent Team 2020, and we didn’t want to go into competition with that so we decided to go with a junior team.”
“If the junior directive goes well then we can look at an U23 team and the dream would still be in the background that we could get a home-based Irish professional team up and running. I think the team has started well. They’ve won seven races in a few weeks and it’s been a great effort so far, thanks to the sponsors and everybody who helped in the creation of the team. But it’s not only about performances.”
“There are other values in sport, not just winning. It’s also about riding together as a group and learning as they go. Hopefully we can go on and be part of this adventure together and these guys will continue learning with us. It would be great to have them move on to the pro ranks and we hope that over the next few years this small little project might go on to be something bigger and turn into an Irish-based professional team.”
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