Jack Conroy has joined the Velo Performance team, explaining to stickybottle how he lost 4kg in a few months and changed his attitude to cycling (Photo:Nassos Triantafyllou)
Jack Conroy was one of the victims of the vomiting bug that swept through the Tour of Rhodes (UCI 2.2) the week before last, but he suffered through and went on to ride strongly in that race. He has since followed up with a solo victory at the Bobby Power Memorial in Co Waterford and credits a 4kg weight loss in recent months with the clear step up in his performance.
His recent win was secured via a near 20km solo move from the breakaway, something he said he would not have been capable of last year. He has also spent time in Australia of late, on the same rides as some of the World Tour pros. So how did he lose the weight and precisely what impact has it had on him?
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Conroy told stickybottle that since joining Velo Performance U23 Development Team, from Bray Wheelers, during the winter there had been changes to his training, nutrition and a plan to lose the weight.
"I've been focusing not just on my sprinting, but on things like climbing and aggressive riding. So it's been a whole new approach this year, I'm really happy with it now," he said.
Conroy, riding for Bray Wheelers, leads the group in the McGinty Autumn Classic at the end of last season (Photo: Toby Watson)
"We got a lab test done in Portugal in November, just to see what our capacities were. And I was up there doing it and my coach was saying to me I should probably focus more on climbing because I had the capacity for it.
“The goal then was to try to lose 4 kilos for February. I did that, it was pretty hard, but I got through it," he said of living like an athlete, rather than allowing college student socialising creep in during the winter months.
He spent time in Spain late last year and earlier this year, losing the weight in the period between, including a month in Perth. And he said the difference in the way he could climb during his second camp in Spain compared to his first was "ridiculous".
"I went to Gran Canaria in November at 78 kilos. I was fine on the climbs, but I was saying to myself 'God I'm putting out a lot of power going up these hills'.
"And then I went to Calpe in February and did similar types of climbs and I was flying up them, I was much better. It's pretty ridiculous."
A delighted Conroy wins the Bobby Power Memorial on St Patrick's Day, his first victory for new team Velo Performance (Photo: Sean Rowe)
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Though the weight loss clearly helped, Conroy said he also decided after last season to tidy up his act. "It was a realisation moment, just for me to really go all in with the cycling," he said
That meant dialling in everything he was doing, including his nutrition, and not living like a college student during winter when he works in a gym in his native Wicklow.
He is now aged 21, and has spent stints racing in Belgium during recent seasons, riding there as an independent, in his Bray Wheelers kit. At the end of last year, he promised himself he would either fully apply himself to the bike or go and get a full-time year-round job. He was done with the half measures.
Spending January in Perth also helped. He went to visit friends he had lived with while racing in Belgium, meaning he was hanging out with cyclists and his trip revolved around the bike.
"It was perfect training, and I'd lost all that weight, so I came back flying, it's been good," he said. "We were doing huge rides. And at that time a year a lot of the pros are home, people like Sam Welsford (Ineos Grenadiers), Ben O'Connor (Jayco AlUla).
"We were doing some of these rides called 'papas' - every Saturday, Sunday and public holidays. It's just full gas for 70k. It's great craic, there's two hundred riders showing up to this group ride. It's carnage, pretty amazing," he laughed.
Though there is a lack of racing in Perth, Conroy said the papas rides - which are effectively raced between the large group - compensate for the depleted racing scene.
While he is very happy with his form, he fell ill in Greece, but still felt he rode well at Tour of Rhodes; a four-stage race against many of the big U23 development teams linked to World Tour squads.
Though he was throwing up at 4am the morning the race started, he said he gathered himself and just threw himself into action.
"I said 'right I'm going to send it, here we go, I didn't come out this way to not race'".
He plans to stay in Ireland in coming weeks, with Dornan Rás Mumhan the next goal. That is an important one of the team as the Dornan group, which is increasingly committing to cycling, is now sponsoring Velo Performance.
After that, he will get stuck into some UCI-ranked races in Italy, continuing the process of trying to get the very best out of himself this season. No half measures.
