Former Irish elite road race champion Conor Dunne is bringing to an end his career in pro cycling.
Dunne, who turns 28-years-old early in the New Year, had
ridden at Continental and ProContinental level for most of his career.
A breakaway specialist, he announced himself with a great win on the opening stage of Rás Tailteann back in 2013 riding the race for Carrick Wheelers.
He then went on to step up to Continental level the
following season with An Post-Chainreaction, a team he rode with for two
seasons.
In 2016 he rode for UK Continental team JLT Condor and took a classy victory in the Rutland-Melton International Cicle Classic, one of the Britain’s toughest one-day races.
The following season when the Irish team Aqua Blue Sport was established Dunne was signed up.
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He spent 2017 with the ProContinental team and up to August 2018 in its ranks; the team folding at that point.
This year he remained at ProContinental level riding with
Israel Cycling Academy.
He rode the Vuelta in 2017 and the Giro in 2019, finishing both Grand Tours, and claimed the Irish road race title in 2018 in the colours of Aqua Blue Sport and was previously Irish U23 TT champion.
His contract with Israel Cycling Academy was for one year and expires tomorrow. Now Dunne has said the time has come to stop racing as a pro.
He was unlucky in that he had signed for two more seasons with Aqua Blue Sport when it collapsed in 2018; a contract that would have brought him up to the end of 2020.
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However, when the team abruptly stopped Dunne went on a
bike packing tour of Europe with former team mate Larry Warbasse.
Their social media posts from their ‘NoGo Tour’ proved a big hit with cycling fans all over the world.
Dunne, who recently became a father for the first time,
said he had spent his time in recent months taking a break and enjoying time
with his family.
However, he had now come to the decision of “hanging up
the race wheels for good”.
“Racing bikes was an adventure I'll never forget, that I
shared with so many incredible people,” he said.
“It's hard to say goodbye to something that has
motivated/driven me for so long but now felt like the right time to put my
energy into a new challenge and I'm so excited about what comes next.
“I'm proud of what I managed
within the sport, most of the time I got an absolute kicking but every now and
then I managed to win the odd race with myself and I feel I always gave all I
had in the process.
“However it wasn't the races
or results that I'll look back on… it’s the people, places, experiences that
will stay with me.”
He added the most important
thing about his cycling career was meeting his partner, Stacey Kelly, though
the sport; something he was more grateful for than anything else from his time
on the bike.
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