Eoin Morton takes the chequered flag in Dunlavin last year. He believes he and his UCD team mates can enjoy further success this year (Photo: Brendan Culleton)
By Brian Canty
Well known are the winter training hotspots of mainland Spain and the Canaries, but for UCD riders Eoin Morton and Ian Richardson, the Greek seaside resort of Loutraki was the location of a recent 10-day training camp.
Along with fellow Dubliner Andrew Stanley (Trinity CC), they managed to link up with Greek Continental team SP Tablewear.
It boasts national champion and former Euskaltel-Euskadi rider Ioannis Tamouridis in its ranks while former Paris-Roubaix winner Johan Vansummeren also attended the camp. It was a world away from the arctic temperatures of Dublin-based Morton.
“It was excellent, really, really good,” he explains.
“It was nice to see how the professionals really do it. Myself and Ian have a contact in Dublin, a Greek national who gives us a bit of advice. He’s a good friend of the team over there so we just got chatting on twitter and that’s how it all came about.
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“It was brilliant to get a bit of warm weather, even though the roads were shite; way worse than Ireland. But the weather compensated for that.”
“We spent the majority of our 10 days with the team but the last couple of days we did some different stuff by ourselves but it was great. The guys were all really nice and it’s not every day you get to ride with guys who have rode Grand Tours or races like Milan-San Remo or Paris Roubaix.”
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Morton and Richardson were two domestic riders whose stock really rose in 2013 and more can be expected of both again this year. That’s despite some truly awful crashes that have afflicted them.
Morton argues he’s probably better known for face-planting a pothole on the run-in to Mitchelstown in the Rás where he “smashed” his nose than for any of his results. He was also knocked down two weeks after the Rás and broke his collar bone.
Richardson suffered a far more serious injury when he had a chain ring sever a tendon in his hand in a crash on stage 3 of last year’s Rás. He spent two months recovering and couldn’t even hold the handlebars on the turbo trainer, effectively ending his season.
“For every county rider, the Rás is the one you want to be in,” says Morton.
“Whether we’ll be competitive is another story but when you ride it, you try and ride it as well as you can. And for me, avoiding being the last county rider is the main goal!”
He said while smashing his face on that stage 6 crash last year was far from pleasant, he had no option but to dust himself off and continue.
“The nose was smashed to pieces and a couple of little problems have stemmed from there; picking up little viruses and things like that. But it looked much worse than it was,” he adds matter of fact.
The UCD team has earned a reputation as a tight unit with a very good team spirit, underlined by some really solid results in the likes of the Tour of Ulster where Richardson has won the time trial stage, the Suir Valley Three Day and Kerry Group Rás Mumhan.
“We mightn’t have the quality of Aquablue but what we do have is a very good bond,” says Morton.
“We’re a bunch of good mates, we’re not just put together. We all drive each other on to be as good as we possibly can. We all train together and get out and do it.
“There’s a great team spirit and we’re on the phone to each other every day. This year I think we can be a force again. We have Anto Walsh back on board, Con Collis had a great year last year and there’s a few more like Sean McKenna who can do some damage.
“But like everyone I guess, I think it’ll be the same five-week period where everyone will be looking to go well; the Tour of Ulster, Rás Mumhan, the Elliott, Nenagh and the Rás. Bring it on.”
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