Olan Barrett emerged last year as a very strong rider capable of doing plenty of damage and dictating the outcome of races. However, despite several trips to the podium the top step just eluded him; unfinished business he hopes to put to bed this year (Photo by Toby Watson, homepage photo by www.blackumbrella.ie)
By Brian Canty
One of the breakthrough riders during last year’s domestic racing season, Olan Barrett has said his performances in 2013 exceeded his expectations though he was disappointed not to score a victory and is keen to put that right soon.
The Aquablue rider, who put in a strong debut in the An Post Rás in May, said while the eight-day will be the focal points if his season, a key aim is to win a race.
Advertisement
He came very close last year, making the podium a number of times including a second place to Paidi O’Brien (Planet Tri) in the Silver Pail GP in his home town of Fermoy with the season just weeks old.
“That’s my number one goal for the year; just to win a race,” he said.
“I don’t care where it is but just to win one race is what I need. I thought one was going to come last year, but it never did so hopefully I can win just once and I’d be happy out for the year.”
He said he had little preference for where a victory might come.
“The local race in Fermoy would be a goal but I’m not going to put myself under pressure because you might become a bit too keen and may be marked a bit more.
“I just need to let it happen and relax. It doesn’t matter where the race is on, be it Currow or Fermoy or the Lacey Cup, it doesn’t matter. I just need to get that monkey off my back.
“Having said that, the team had a phenomenal year last year and our philosophy is ‘a win is a win, no matter who gets it’. A win for me would be one for Aquablue, regardless.
“Whoever has the best legs and gets into the break is the guy we’re going to ride for. So if I’m there, the lads in the bunch will try to stall it behind. But equally if Sean (Lacey) or (Damian) Shaw are up the road, I’ll be doing my best behind to halt things.”
At present, Barrett is in Gran Canaria logging some winter miles in the sweltering heat and he had the good fortune to meet, and tag along with, Nicolas Roche and his Saxo-Tinkoff Bank teammate Roman Kreuziger on a training spin earlier in the week.
Related News
“It was finny, me and Robin (Kelly) were just going up a climb and they came screaming past us so I jumped on Nicolas’ wheel. Needless to say he dropped me after a short while; I didn’t last too long.
“He was doing some 20 minute power intervals up the climb. At the top of the climb then myself and Robin just tagged along and were with him for about an hour and a half.
“Roman’s English wasn’t the best so were just chatted to Roche. He did some sprint training and we joined in on that as well which was great. They’re fairly impressive the two of them.
“You hear Nicolas isn’t much of a sprinter but I can tell you he can move alright,” he explained.
Barrett is one of a growing number of Irish riders to monitor their training session using a power meter and compared to 12 months ago he says has made good progress.
“It’s a similar amount of hours I’m doing but a slightly different approach. Last year I came out flying in February, March and April. But this year I want a slightly slower build up to make sure the legs are good from April on because the Rás is the big goal.”
He was aggressive in that race last year and on stage 6 he got into the day’s main escape before puncturing and losing his place out front. He has come a long way in recent years, having been around 20stone back in 2008.
His transition to being one of the strong men on the home cycling scene is all the more remarkable when one considers that while in University in UCC he won a bronze medal at a European Universities Golf Championships.
This year he plans to hit the season in good form but is timing his run a little more conservatively.
“I got into a lot of the early-season breaks last year and to be honest I was surprised because it seemed that every race just clicked for me; it didn’t take too many attacks to get into the breaks.
“On some days I was gone from the start, it just seemed like I didn’t have to work massively hard, they just seemed to fall into place which surprised me; I didn’t expect that. Maybe I just had good legs and went with the right moves or I was lucky.
“But all the racing took its toll, Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. I won’t be doing that again. I raced too often last year and never gave myself a chance to recover properly.
“So I’ll be picking and choosing my races a bit more and I’ll be taking weeks off here and there to get a mental and physical break from it. As I said, the Rás is the big one for me.”
(Advertisement)
Topics
