Some of the current Irish U23 internationals, from left: Ryan Mullen, Jack Wilson, Conor McIlwaine and Cormac Clarke
By Brian Canty
Cycling Ireland head coach, Brian Nugent has said while the last week of Nations Cup races was a tough assignment for the U23 national team – some of whom were racing at that level for the first time – he feels there is a lot more to come from the current crop.
He was speaking after the riders finished the ZLM Tour in Holland today, Saturday. It followed La Cote Picarde in France midweek and the U23 Tour of Flanders in Belgium last weekend.
“Today was fast, we covered 52 kilometres in the first hour and the race split straight away,” said Nugent.
“All of the six Dutch riders were in the split from the start so it was lined out for two hours trying to bring it back. It was tough, really hard racing.”
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“There were groups all over the place, we went over the Zeeland bridge after 10k and there were splits everywhere and echelons forming so it was a good experience, with so many groups all over the road. Our inexperienced riders weren’t prepared for that, it wasn’t like Flanders or France. It was just riding in echelons all day so it was a really good learning curve.”
“Our goal today was to try and protect Ryan (Mullen), Conor (Dunne) and Jack (Wilson). The first three groups merged and Ryan and Conor were in that. Jack came out of it because he had been sick all week.”
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Wilson was unable to finish.
Said Nugent: “We were pleased enough with how that went but Conor eventually got tailed out because he hadn’t the legs. Ryan got caught out by a crash, he was just on the wrong side of it and he got tailed out and couldn’t get back in. But overall I was happy with the spirit and the morale of the team," he added.
The other riders in the team did not finish the race. They were: Daniel Stewart, Cormac Clarke and Conor McIlwaine. Eoin McCarthy was also involved in the other races this week and rode well.
Nugent will oversee the U23 team for the foreseeable future and he’s adamant his charges can get results if they stick together.
“What I’m trying to do is start off with a new group of U23s and try to get them working well together. They’re really buying into the system and they’re loving being on the team. What I’m pleased with is how they’re going out every day with the plan and attempting to put everything in to achieve the plan. Certain things happen that we can’t control but we talk and discuss what we can do and that’s a format that will get success.”
“I’ve so much faith in these guys and Irish cycling in general; it’s about getting the right people and the right teams and working towards a goal These guys definitely have the talent so we must nurture that and give them a platform to succeed. But I totally believe they’ve got the talent to succeed. It will take a lot of hard work and to keep learning. They got a tough time this week but that’s how they’ll learn.”
“It’s going to be difficult to qualify a team for the Worlds now but we’ll go home and see what we can do now. I want to keep meeting them and training them and racing. So the whole point of these 10 days was to evaluate where we are and what we need to do with this group. It is a very young group. But we’re not naive; we know we’ve a lot of work to do.”
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