Michael O'Loughlin is aiming for selection on the Irish junior team for the World Road Race Championships this year, where a top 20 place in the time trial is on his radar. Seen here riding for the national youth team at the Youth Tour of Scotland last year where he won a road stage.
One of the strongest U16 riders in the country last year, Carrick’s Michael O’Loughlin has enjoyed a seamless transition to senior racing, making the escape in all but one of the events he has ridden since the start of the year and already being included in the junior national set-up.
The 17-year-old Leaving Cert student was among a group of junior riders taken to Majorca for a week last month by Cycling Ireland for a training camp on track and road.
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And the miles he got under his belt on that excursion, added to some quality training in recent months as he prepared to move into the junior ranks has stood him in good stead.
He said that during his two week school holiday at Christmas he did a lot of miles in a group that included his father Martin, new NetApp-Endura rider and fellow Carrick man Sam Bennett, as well as former leading elite rider Rory Wyley and in-form Carrick man Sean Hahessy.
“You’re always in good company in Carrick and I put in huge miles in the two weeks over Christmas and the week before it and week after. Sam Bennett was even looking at me and saying he was wicked impressed.”
In the Cycleways Cup in Navan, Co Meath, three weekends ago O’Loughlin Jnr made what looked like the winning breakaway until it was turned the wrong way and spent the remainder of the race chasing. He was forced to settle for a bunch finish as a result.
In the Newbridge Grand Prix the weekend before last he infiltrated the winning move alongside his father Martin and Hahessy (both Iverk Produce Carrick Wheelers) and another very strong first year junior Adam Stenson of Lucan CRC.
With O’Loughlin Jnr having moved from Iverk Produce Carrick Wheelers to the Nicolas Roche Performance Team over the winter, he found himself up the road with two of his former team mates on the last lap in Newbridge when Stenson lost his place in the escape.
Family loyalty did not come into play in the outcome of the race as his father and Hahessy worked over O’Loughlin Jnr until U23 rider Hahessy pulled clear alone in the closing stages to take victory, with O’Loughlin Jnr outsprinting his father for second.
But in the Blarney & District Traders Cup last Sunday, it was junior who blasted across to a two-man move containing his father and Killarney’s Brendan Cassidy in the closing stages after the A1 riders failed to catch a breakaway of A2 and A3 men in the handicapped event.
This time the youngster made no mistake, sprinting in for the win from the leading trio ahead of the remains of the breakaway they had just left.
The following day on St Patrick’s Day in Carrick he helped his father reel in the breakaway on the incline to the finish line to take the Tommy Sheehan Memorial, capping a great weekend for father and son.
Taking victory in the main event in Blarney last Sunday, with his father Martin O’Loughlin of Iverk Produce-Carrick Wheelers in 2nd place; Killarney’s Brendan Cassidy is in 3rd place (Photo: Brendan Slattery)
“I was delighted with winning Blarney, I was probably in shock,” he said.
“It felt like it wasn’t supposed to happen; that it should take a bit longer to get a win. I caught Dad and Brendan Cassidy and I gave the nod to the father; we both knew what was going to happen.”
He laughs when describing the finale the previous weekend in Newbridge, but says his father and Hahessy genuinely did work him over, seeming happy they weren’t going to handle him with kid gloves.
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“They were attacking me coming in the road, it was a 1-2, 1-2 kind of thing,” he laughed of the tag team action against him.
“Sean Hahessy was absolutely flying that day, as he had been all the winter. But I was happy enough anyway with how the legs felt. After the Cycleways Cup I had felt a bit down in myself.
“I went for a rub with Michael Bennett, Sam Bennett’s father, and he gave me a big long lecture, telling me I was stressed out and trying to put me at ease. So that really picked me up.”
Having ridden for Carrick Wheelers Iverk Produce since he started on the bike, O'Loughlin has now moved to the Nicolas Roche Performance Team for 2014.
He said having trained well and “followed senior races in a back of a car since I was 10” he was hopeful of making a quick transition from U16 to riding as a junior in senior races.
“I followed the races when Dad and Sam Bennett were in the breaks week in, week out some seasons. And you’d be wondering ‘will it be the same for me when I get up to this level, will I be able to learn the things Sam got to learn’.”
Moving from the youth ranks to the longer races as a junior was something he says he was looking forward to.
“At U16 the races weren’t as long. I knew I had bigger miles in me. I’m more of an endurance rider. I like it when the racing gets hard.”
Currently studying for his Leaving Cert, he said he deliberately prepared pre season for a big start to year, which will be followed by a break of around six weeks after Easter, before he builds for goals such as the Junior Tour in the second half of the season.
Ultimately he is hopeful of making the Irish team for the junior racing at the World Road Race Championships in Spain in September, where a top 20 finish in the time trail is his key goal.
“I think I’m capable of it anyway. I’ve nearly preferred time trialling to road racing all the way up as a youth rider. It’s something I’ve always done well in and that I really like.”
He points to his 2nd place finish in the TT stage of the international Youth Tour of Assen in Holland last year as a high point in the season. He also won a stage in the Youth Tour of Scotland last year
More immediately his thoughts are turning to the Easter Weekend, and with Cycling Ireland entering a national selection in the Tour of the North he is not clear yet if he will ride there or the Gorey Three Day.
For the next few years he will try to continue his development but would love to ride professionally one day.
“A yeah, I’d love to do it,” he says when asked if he would like to eventually turn pro like Bennett, though he has his eyes fixed on a sports science course in university for next year.
“Like, I’m always saying it to Sam ‘what did you win as a first year junior? I’ll have to win one over you this year and do better than you again as a second year junior’,” he laughs.
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