Jack Wilson said a good ride in U23 road race at the World Championships could have a lasting impact for him through the winter and into next year.
One of three Irish riders due to start the U23 road race at the World Championships in Ponferrada, Spain; Jack Wilson has said he is hopeful of taking a good end to the season from the encounter.
He will team up on the national squad with Conor Dunne and Ryan Mullen; two riders he knows well as the trio are team mates on the An Post-Chainreaction squad.
Mullen goes into the race with an excellent silver medal to his name from the U23 time trial earlier in the week, while today’s road race is Wilson’s and Dunne’s only outing at the Worlds.
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Wilson had a fall at the recent Tour of Britain and badly bruised his shoulder, suffering pain and restriction of movement for most of the eight-day race.
However, he battled very well through that and is looking forward to today’s 182km Worlds contest getting started at 12 noon Irish time.
“It should be a good experience and hopefully I can round out the season well because I didn’t start it too well,” he said.
“Hopefully I can go into the winter with good morale and come back next year and actually do something instead of making the numbers up.”
Right to left; Mullen, Wilson and Dunne filled the U23 podium - in that order - at the National Road Race Championships and switch from the green of An Post-Chainreaction to the green of Ireland for today's world title race (Photo: Toby Watson)
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Of today’s course, Wilson said: “There’s a brave lot of climbing, something like 300 metres a lap so it should be fun.”
The riders’ trade team manager, Kurt Bogaerts is also their manager for today’s race. The Belgian said with Mullen having already been on the podium this week, another medal was not out of the question for Ireland.
“Ryan’s performance was simply outstanding,” he said.
“When a rider performs to his ability and gets his reward it makes the other guys sit up and think ‘wow, I want that’. So it definitely spurs the team on and also gives them more confidence to go out and believe they can do it themselves.”
Bogaerts was optimistic when speaking of the riders’ chances today.
“I’m sure Ryan will want to pick up where he left off on Monday so he’ll go in to the race full of desire to pick up a second medal. Both Conor and Jack are raring to go.
“Jack had a bad crash as we know at the Tour of Britain but he’s recovered well and raced at the weekend. They will all be in the mix so I’m excited to see how it plays out.”
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