Irish downhill rider Oisin O'Callaghan has ended his incredible 2020 season with a podium finish in the UCI World Cup series.
The 17-year-old from Limerick had already taken gold at the World Championships and scored repeated victories in rounds of the World Cup.
And while he was a hot favourite to take the World Cup series overall victory, bad luck in the final races near Fatima in Portugal saw him finish down the field and miss out on that victory.
O'Callaghan could have played it safe in the final rounds and taken a high placing, which would have been enough to win overall as he had a 19-point lead in the competition starting the racing in Portugal.
But he said playing safe is not in his nature and so he went all-out for victory. However, the YT Mob rider suffered a puncture and crash and so saw the World Cup 2020 title slip away from him.
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"I felt really good on track but with a flat tire in the first race and a crash in the second ended my chances of getting the overall title," he said of the race that didn't go according plan in recent weeks.
"As a first year junior if you’d told me at the start of the year that I’d get the results I’ve had, well I would have been stoked. I’m hungry for next year’s World Cup overall now!"
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Instead of victory this year, the 5th year student at Scoil Pól Kilfinane in Limerick had to be content with 2nd overall in the World Cup.
He added that to his world title, taken in Austria, and wins in two rounds of the World Cup, both in Slovenia in October.
O'Callaghan is Ireland's first ever world champion in downhill racing and the first junior world champion Ireland has had in any cycling discipline since Mark Scanlon won the world junior road race title back in 1998.
He lives on the doorstep of the Ballyhoura mountain bike trails in Ardpatrick, Co Limerick; living so close to the trails that he couldn't help but get involved in the sport.
Indeed his father, Chris, is co-owner of Trail Riders, the mountain bike shop and service provider at Ballyhoura.
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