David Conroy (SCOTT-Eurocycles) emerged victorious after a ding-dong battle in the elite contest at the Leinster cyclocross championships in Blackwater Park, Navan yesterday. The Wicklow teenager will now turn his attention to round five of the UK national series next weekend and a UCI World Cup in Belgium a week after. (Photo: Sean Rowe)
By Brian Canty
Leaving Cert student David Conroy decided to forego racing the U23 category at the Leinster Cyclocross Championships yesterday, opting instead to get into the fight for the elite crown.
It was a brave more for the first-year U23 and reigning national junior champion but one that paid off.
He beat Niall Davis (Biking.ie) and Paul O’Reilly (UCD-Fitzcycles.ie) after a real slugfest over eight laps and is now looking forward to some bigger contests later this month.
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Next weekend he’ll race round 5 of the UK National Series before tackling a UCI World Cup event in Namur.
“I’m happy enough so far this season, I had a bit of sickness this week which meant I lost a week’s training but I’m mostly over that so it’s full steam ahead from here on.”
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Conroy, riding for SCOTT-Eurocycles reckons the standard has gone up a notch this season – but so too has one of his biggest challengers, Robin Seymour.
“I’m not sure if I'm strong enough yet to beat him because he seems to be even stronger again this year," he said of the MTB masters world champion.
“It’s a sign of the times; the cyclocross scene has continued to grow but the competition has greatly increased across the board as well.”
Conroy logs about eight hours a week on the bike and supplements that with two more in the gym.
With a Leaving Cert to worry about, he’s hardly got a spare minute but is enjoying balancing it all.
In his last trip to the UK for the national series - round 3 last month - he was 9th in the U23 category and 26th overall.
While he is optimistic of going better, the World Cup a week later is an entirely different proposition.
“For Namur, finishing in the top 50-60 per cent would be amazing as a first year U23 and hopefully help get me noticed by Cycling Ireland.
“The big goal further down the line is to get another team to the World Championships in January in Luxembourg.”
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