Sean Downey knows this year is an important one for his career and having seen close friend Sam Bennett move on from An Post-Chainreaction to a bigger team he is hopeful of doing the same.
By Shane Stokes
Describing 2014 as a very important season for his career, Sean Downey has said the example set by Sam Bennett will spur him on to what he hopes will be a very successful year.
The two riders competed side by side at An Post-Chainreaction in recent years. And Bennett’s moving on to the Pro Continental NetApp Endura team over the winter and then clocking up a win inside his first month of racing has shown Downey and others what is possible in the sport.
“I am very friendly with Sam,” Downey told stickybottle in the video interview below.
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“We’ve raced together right up through the under age and spent a lot of time with each other on different teams and on this team.
“We’re really good friends and seeing him move on and step up the next level [is motivating]. I was racing him [as a younger rider].
He would beat me and I would beat him. I know I can do it… it is just getting the right combination, taking my chances and getting results.”
ranked Kreiz Breizh Elites race plus eighth overall.
Last season his results included another fourth place in the national time trial championships, fifth in the 1.2-ranked Circuit de Wallonie and fifteenth in the 1.2 Zuid Oost Drenthe Classic Zuidenveld Tour.
Now 23 years of age, he knows that it is time for him to step up a level if he is to secure a bigger contract for 2015.
“I’m getting older now and it is harder to get those opportunities whenever you are not an under 23,” he accepted.
“If you’re winning races the opportunities will come to you. So [this year] is just about getting those wins, or consistent results; always being in the top ten.”
In the video interview, Downey speaks in detail about the highs and lows of last season. He showed well in some events including Wallonie, but became ill before the An Post Rás and had a quiet race.
“I just sort of struggled last year with staying healthy and getting sick,” he said.
“I don’t know what the problem was. It was a sort of an up and down year. There were good times and down times. After the Rás, I was sort of mentally really tired. I gathered myself again and finished off the season pretty well.”
A result in September helped his morale to pick up again.
“I nearly got the king of the mountains jersey one time in the Tour of Britain, I think I was a point off the jersey,” he explained.
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“It was an up and down year. It wasn’t a disaster; it wasn’t a real big success. It was all right.”
Downey believes he has had a better winter than in recent seasons and hopes that will make a difference in 2014.
Ditto a change to a new coach; having worked with former Irish international Tommy Evans in the past, he has decided to try something new with a French trainer he worked with before when he was racing with the VC La Pomme team.
He believes the early signs are good and had a boost to his confidence when he rode well in the GP Izola in February.
“Slovenia was my first race this season,” he said.
“I wanted to start a little bit later this year. I went quite well there, I was 18th. Then in Kuurne–Brussel–Kuurne I finished in the third group. I was quite happy to get a finish in that race as it’s not exactly my style of racing.
“But I fought through it; I fought hard and got to the end. It was good with all the big names in it, so it wasn’t so bad.
Downey then rode the Three Days of West Flanders last weekend, being one of many riders who withdrew on the final stage. He won’t be too put out by that; his big goal is to continue building form and then to ride well on terrain which should suit him better at the Tour of Normandy.
“I would like to go pretty well there,” he said.
“It is a race that could suit my style of racing. I have raced quite a lot in France and I lived in Brittany for a year. I know the area pretty well.”
The terrain is hilly, something which plays to his strengths.
Watch the video below for more from Downey, including his thoughts on the 2014 An Post Rás plus the Commonwealth Games.
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