Ryan Sherlock will target the European Mountainbike Championships in Ireland this year, but still has plenty of goals on the road as he looks for a team for the coming season.
By Gerard Cromwell
Having spent half of 2013 riding on the Asian circuit with the Polygon Sweet Nice team, former mountainbiker Ryan Sherlock is back in Ireland and admits he is still searching for a team for next year.
“For me, because I started so late, it’s kind of hard,” he says.
“I’m already 31 and some teams think I’m not going to improve any more. But I think I am and I see in my training and racing that I’m improving.
“I’ve an option in Spain and another one in Belgium that I might go to and there’s a team in the US that I might guest for and do some NRC racing but I don’t know yet.”
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Sherlock previously rode for the Cycleways mountainbiking team domestically but is on the lookout for a squad that will put more emphasis into stage racing next season.
“We’re trying to sort out some stuff in relation to the mountainbiking team in Cycleways. It’d be nice to ride with a team where we have a few strong riders when it comes to stage races and stuff.
“Racing mountainbikes is very different to racing on the road but it would be cool to go back and do Rás Mumhan and actually try and win it this time. Then of course, you have the Rás and the nationals and two weeks after that there’s the European Mountainbike Championships in Ireland.
“I’m the national champion in that and I’ve ridden that course down there a lot and it’s really nice. The Rás, the Europeans and the road nationals, they will be my big goals of the season.”
Having ridden the opening two races of the domestic season in 2013, Sherlock found himself in Taiwan alongside compatriot and teammate Mark Dowling after a 48 hour journey that took in seven airports.
“We raced the Tour of Thailand, which is a 2.1, the day after arriving. I went okay and was in some moves but it was very controlled and things were always brought back.
“There should have been five in each team but two of our Indonesians got dropped on the first lap of the first stage which left just me, Mark and another Indonesian who was strong enough but not up to 2.1 level, which left basically myself and Mark.
“Going into the climbs over there, the big teams all had lead-outs and we were riding 40kph into a 6 per cent climb, getting swamped. But that race was okay. We were supposed to do Thailand but our invite was cancelled and the team didn’t seem particularly stressed about it which meant Mark and I were staying in Indonesia for a long time.
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“Mark decided the situation wasn’t the best and went home. I stayed and went to the Philippines which was a four-day. I think I had the legs to go for a podium, but the first day I punctured out of the break that set up the GC and in the final stage I was helping our teammate.”
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While Dowling got out and made his way home, Sherlock hung on and rode a few more races with the team in Asia before riding the Tour of Azerbaijan and coming home.
“I think I underestimated how hard it would be to train and live in Indonesia,” he admits.
“I’ve backpacked around the world before becoming a cyclist and I wouldn’t bat an eyelid at staying there as a traveller but as a cyclist it’s not the best.
“We were sleeping on the floor of a jam factory for two months, in 40 degree heat with 95 per cent humidity. The pollution was incredible. I’ve never seen anything like it. The food was terrible too.
“You were literally eating rice with oil fried chicken every day and it was hard to do anything different than that. I was okay in the Tour of Taiwan and the Philippines but by the time I got to Azerbaijan, which was a great race, my form had just been drilled away and when I came back here I was sick.
“I was so frustrated in the Rás, knowing the form I’d been in two months earlier. I was just riding around on my limit the whole time. It was enough to stay in the front group but when I was in the front group, I couldn’t do anything.”
Sixth place in the national road championships gave a glimpse of his potential, as did some decent results in a season ending stint in Belgium. But for now Sherlock admits he is a gun for hire, on the lookout for a new squad.
“Pretty much,” he laughs.
“To the highest bidder... actually any bid please; I know how cycling works…. I’d like to race a few races next season where I could do well, like some 2.2 stage races.
“I really enjoy stage races but I’d love to be part of a team where even if we had one excellent rider that could get into a yellow jersey. I’d love to just bury myself to defend a jersey on the front of the peloton for something like that.”
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