Travis Harkness gets his season underway in France tomorrow, Sunday, with his new team Lyon Sprint Evolution and is looking forward to putting injury aside and enjoying a strong road campaign in the months ahead.
Formerly with VC Glendale and Spellman Dublin Port, the 20-year-old told stickybottle he will share an apartment in Lyon with compatriot and team mate Curtis Neill and was ready to throw himself into European racing.
"We're going to have a full season in France, a full crack it at," he told stickybottle. "The plan is to stay in France but if there's no big racing on at the time of the Rás, then I'll come home and do that. And I'll ride the nationals as well."
Harkness and Neill start their season tomorrow in Nîmes, southern France, in the 121km Grand Prix de Manduel, which will unfold over nine laps of a 13.4km circuit.
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Though Harkness had represented Ireland already it has been in the cyclocross discipline and he said with his attentions turned to road racing, he was hopeful of breaking into U23 national road teams this year.
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"The goal is to represent Ireland on the road, I've never done it before. The Europeans or the Worlds would be a big accomplishment."
He suffered a bout of patella tendonitis in his right knee and only got back on the bike a week before last month's National Cyclocross Championships
"I had three weeks off so I didn't even know if I was going to race the nationals," he told stickybottle, though race he did to pick up the bronze. "I was very happy to be on the podium."
In that Nationals race, Harkness finished on the podium behind winner Dean Harvey and runner-up Darnell Moore (Caldwell) but it was Tadhg Killeen (Kilcullen Cycling Club Murphy Geospacial) who pushed him closest for the bronze.
The duo traded 3rd-4th places repeatedly in the race, especially in the closing stages, though Harkness won the battle for the last corner and then the kick out of it in the short sprint to the line.
Harkness made a big effort early in that race to close down eventual winner Harvey as he began to pull away but said ultimately the champion was "too strong for everyone on the day".
