Killian O'Brien went deep, but for the first time the Dubliner was able to flex in a UCI-ranked race; making a real impact rather than making up the numbers
Fancied for a long time by many in Irish cycling to perform on the international stage, Killian O'Brien's fledgling career as had some stop-start moments. Injury hampered his progress last season, and after a big winter had promised so much. His climbing talents haven't flowed as he'd hoped.
But now the emerging talent from south Dublin has finally found his feet. "The main difference is, since I switched coach this winter, we focussed a lot on explosive efforts," he said, also outlining to stickybottle the new regime he has followed.
"A lot of time in the gym, sprinting and switching from traditional steady state Vo2s to tabata intervals - 40/20s and 30/15s,” he explained of the regime coach George Evans has changed him to.
"That’s just allowed me to stay at the front in position all day without burning my legs following the punchy accelerations in the bunch on short climbs and out of corners. It's leaving me a lot fresher at the pointy end of the races."
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Last week the Team Skyline rider - a second-year U23 who turned 20-years-old in April - rode Tour de Beauce (2.2) in Canada. He looked like one of the strongest in the field during some very hard moments.
Rás Tailteann yellow jersey holder Adam Lewis leads the three-man breakaway from Killian O'Brien and Colombian Róbigzon Leandro Oyola
He was 3rd on a stage and was fighting, until the last, for the young rider classification. He eventually relinquished that jersey, but still finished 2nd in the classification. Even on the days when he didn't bag a result, he looked like the young rider we perhaps expected to see through last season.
Tour de Beauce is not the Tour de France, far from it. But on the start line this year was a Colombian Team Medellín-EPM line-up that ripped the legs of most of the field.
The APS Pro Cycling by Team Cadence Cyclery that did so well in Rás Tailteann was present too, including overall winner Conn McDunphy and yellow jersey holder Adam Lewis.
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O'Brien was 3rd on the 169km stage 2, from a three-man breakaway with Colombian Róbigzon Leandro Oyola (Team Medellín-EPM) and Lewis. He was 21st, 28th and 17th on the remaining stages.
His stage 4 TT ride saw him beaten for the young rider classification by Canadian international Jérôme Gauthier (Project Echelon Racing). But, overall, he was happy. He was at the front, racing hard. He was making an impact, animating the race, not making up the numbers.
Killian O'Brien, in the green of Team Skyline, leads the group at Tour de Beauce in Canada
"The last three to four weeks, I’ve finally been at a high enough level to compete at the front of a UCI and be racing for the wins," O'Brien said. "It feels so rewarding after last year where I was just hanging on a lot of the time."
"Beauce was the first time I’ve been able to put everything together. On stage 1, I had to chase all day with little help from others, due to a very dangerous break with all of the big team represented. We brought it back to less than 30s, but it was still annoying.
"I went into stage 2 wanting to avoid that same situation. After the hardest climb of the day, a two-minute wall, the bunch was split to bits. There was only 10-15 of us left at the front closing down the early break.
"Once we caught them, when everyone was still gassed from chasing, I sent a flyer and was joined by Adam Lewis and the Medellin guy. Adam and I pulled full to the line with the other guy sitting on to protect his leaders GC.
"I completely died, I had no water for the last 90 minutes of the race. My core temperature sky-rocketed and I was left empty, hanging on for the last few kilometres, pulling where I could.
"We stayed away but I was distanced on the last rise to the line which would end up being quite a time loss," he added of the 10 seconds he lost.
"Stage 3 was the queen stage, with a big climb to the finish. But after going so far over the limit the previous day I was empty. I foolishly tried to stay with the front for too long and popped badly. I lost nearly 2 minutes in the last 2km."
Still, having gone to a UCI-ranked for the first time as a senior and taken a result, O'Brien looks like he is on his way.
