Conor Murphy was the top performing Irish male junior at the UCI Cyclocross World Cup in Dublin on Sunday, when the whole team fought hard and most of the riders were enjoying their first race in the green jersey of Ireland.
Murphy last year went to Europe and claimed 7th in Azencross-Loenhout (C1), in Belgium; the best placing by an Irish rider in cyclocross of this level. Though that may have raised expectations for how he would ride at the Dublin World Cup, Murphy's 2025 road preparations have informed his cyclocross racing and training of late.
The fact he has one eye on the road for next year - in his second year as a junior - is no surprise given his record to date and his clear potential. He won the junior TT title at the National Road Championships this year, placed 10th in the junior TT at the Worlds and also won Eroica Juniores-Coppa Andrea Meneghelli (1.1) in Italy in May.
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"It was a very exciting race, I wasn't expecting much," Murphy told stickybottle of his World Cup ride, finishing 14th. "I had a goal in my head for today or around top 10 or top 15 and I achieved that. So I'm pretty happy."
Though he was gridded at the back, once the race began to unfold there was more room to make progress, enabling him to move from outside the top 20 up through the field.
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"It was tight enough on some of the corners but the Ireland coaches gave me great advice and we just picked them off one-by-one. I'm very happy with my ride."
Murphy said though he was still very keen to ride cyclocross and perform well - with concrete plans for this month - he has not yet thrown himself into it as hard as he might.
"I'm just training for the road, I'm not doing as much 'cross as I did last year. I just want to get good results next year (on the road) so I just really have to put in the work."
However, he has eye on competing in Continental Europe in the weeks ahead, meaning his 'cross campaign will ramp up from here, with the Dublin World Cup just the first big fixture of his season.
"I'm going to Belgium at Christmas, so I'll give it a good lash in the 'cross there, do the Christmas period over there. There's a World Cup and few Exact Crosses so it will be a good experience. Hopefully we'll do a bit more work after this good result and we'll get over the line hopefully.
