By Brian Canty
Irish U23 international rider, Conor McIlwaine endured a miserable season in 2013 after a crash saw him initially sidelined and then struggle for the remainder of the year.
His spill in the U23 Tour of Flanders in April saw him fracture his thumb in two places and dislocate it while on Nations Cup duty.
So serious was the painful injury that three screws were required in his hand to stabilise it.
He would fight back to race again but the seven-week lay-off proved too long to regain the kind of form that would have seen him properly contend in competition.
“I wasn't too happy about the season,” the 20-year-old Letterkenny man told stickybottle.
“Going full-time was a lot harder than I thought it would be. The training was the easy part, keeping myself occupied between times was what got to me.
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“Then the crash happened which wasn’t ideal because my form was building. It was a real disappointment.
“In total I’d seven weeks off racing including the An Post Rás. And that was going to be one of my main goals.
“So I was gutted and I struggled with the form after that.”
Aside from the discomfort of the injury and the near two-month lay-off that resulted during what should have been a hectic period of racing, learning and general development; the emerging Donegal man conceded it impacted him mentally too.
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“I had no form when I came back so I wasn't racing well, and that completely destroyed any confidence I had,” he said.
“I wasn't in a very good place, to be honest.”
Driving the action in the umistakable rain of Ireland in the first weeks of the 2013 season. McIlwaine will be back in the bunch and in college in Ireland next year as he looks to continue building his obvious potential (Photo: Toby Watson)
McIlwaine, who has ridden in Belgium with the Terra Footwear Bicycle Line team said his plan for next year is to keep his head down, go back to college at Dublin City University, and take things as they come.
“I’ll be racing here in Ireland for next year,” he confirmed.
“I hope to be racing with a Donegal-based team but things are still to be confirmed.
“To be honest I just want to get back into racing again, where I am enjoying it.
"I took things too seriously last year and that could have been one of the reasons why things didn't go to plan.
“I’ve all the main Irish stage races done like the Rás, Rás Mumhan, Tour of the North, Tour of Ulster; so I’m looking forward to getting back into racing here in Ireland.
“I'm not setting myself any major goals for next year. I am just going to train hard, race hard and see where it takes me.”
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