Matthew Walls represented Ireland for the first time last year, though there will be fewer chances as an U23. He is now facing into his first season as an U23, and already feels things are moving on for him (Photo: Toby Watson)
This time last year, Matthew Walls was regarded as a middling junior rider. But that's all changed now; the 18-year-old having taken commanding wins during the 2025 season and shot up the pecking order. The owner of Walls's new team – decorated American ex-pro Freddie Rodriguez - has already singled out the Irish teenager as one who stands out in the team setting.
He said Walls was a natural stepping up to the UCI Continental squad, grasping ideas easily to the extent the team was already "leaning on him" to perform. Giro stage winner and four-time US pro champion, Rodriguez, added other riders would learn by watching Walls; all that before the young Irish rider had even raced for the team.
"We're not telling them what to do, the workout is helping them learn how to do it," Rodriguez told cyclingnews recently of the riders in his new APS Pro Cycling by Cadence Cyclery team, a US-registered UCI Conti outfit that will race in both Europe and North America.
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"Matthew is doing it so naturally, and the other guys are going to learn from this, from repetition of making the right breakaway, being in the right place at the right time."
Matthew Walls, in the white and blue of his new APS team, in action last weekend in Navan (Photo: Sean Rowe)
Last weekend, Walls rode his first races as an U23. It looked like he didn't set the world on fire, finishing outside the top 10 in both the Mick Lally Memorial and Seamus Kennedy Memorial - in Summerhill and Navan, both Co Meath. But the results didn't really matter.
Chatting to stickybottle at the Mick Lally, Walls was his usual relaxed self before the start and looked leaner than last year. "People are saying that, but the weight hasn't changed," he laughed.
After the race, he seemed as relaxed as always, even though he had been in a strongman's breakaway that was caught just before the finish.
In that move, he and team mate Cian Keogh attacked several times coming in the road. They were keen to try and get away from Conal Scully (Dan Morrissey-Pissei), Daire Feeley (Burren CC) and Josh Callaly (Velo Performance),
All of the riders attacked at some point, but Walls seemed to be going especially well as he put in his digs. The others were straining just that little bit more, tucked a little tighter on the drops, as they responded to his moves. He was on the attack again in Navan on Sunday, though this time did not sniff out the winning move.
Though he came away with no placings, it became very clear he's where he needs to be, and some, at this time of year.
Junior of Tour Ireland race leader, and eventual winner, Walls of Cycling Leinster saw of a stacked with with as many juniors from Britain and the US as there were from Ireland; an international win, though it was an Irish race (Photo: Stephen McMahon-Sportsfile)
Though he is still in school, doing his Leaving Cert this year, he spent plenty of time at training camps, in Spain and the US, in recent months. One stint, which ended at the start of last week, was effectively done on his own; a fortnight in Calpe getting the volume in with a friend of his having travelled to keep him company.
Walls, coached by former Irish TT senior champion Conn McDunphy, seems to never, ever, get too carried away or stressed. He is like an experienced professional in that sense. But he is switched on and is very focused on trying to make an impact this year.
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And a rider like Walls needs to. There will be just one, maybe two, international racing selection chances this year for the U23s with designs on the Irish team; the Europeans and/or the Worlds.
Though he has moved from the junior ranks into the UCI Continental scene, and he is grateful for his place on APS, he needs to get into an U23 development squad linked to a World Tour team.
Walls wins the final stage, and with it the overall, at Volta Portugal Juniores, his second GC victory of 2025
"I think the legs are there, it's just about getting the right winning formula in these C1 races," he said of his first challenge this year - winning at home. He insists he "didn't go crazy" training during winter as he prepared to move into senior racing with a UCI Conti team.
"It was more than last year but nothing crazy, just consistent really," he said. "Going from junior to under-23, you'd want to be bringing the hours up, but it wasn't crazy different. I did maybe 15 hours a week last year, up to 18 hours a week this winter."
He was in Calpe in December for a Cycling Ireland combined junior-U23 training camp, followed by an APS camp in Texas in January - "it was my first time out of Europe, it was very different". And then the second half of February was spent in Calpe.
So what's next?
"I'll only be going to one race abroad with the team before the Leaving Cert," he said of the period to June. "I'll do Rás Tailteann with the team before the Leaving Cert and Rás Mumhan."
He has his eye on a racing period in Europe - and in Turkey and North America - when the exams are done, though selections are not yet decided as the races are so far off.
"It's about seeing what the senior racing scene around Europe is like," he said of the main goal for this year. "And hopefully I can aim for a devo team for next year. I was unlucky last year because the results I got were very late in the season.
"A lot of the (devo) teams were full at that stage. I only started trying to find a team in October, and I was just too late by then," he says, though stressing his team this year is a fantastic opportunity he intends to grasp.
Though he really wants to ride for the Irish U23 team this year, he points out Tour de l'Avenir is "out the window" because national teams are now effectively scrapped there. And though a mainly U23 Irish team will be picked for the Rás, his own team is riding that race.
"So if they choose the Euros or the Worlds, I guess that's really the only option," he said of making an Irish team in 2026. "But I could have a shout of going to them because last year I was already going alright, but this year I can feel I've taken another step up."
He said if he had jumped into the Mick Lally with the C1s last year he "would have been struggling". Yet last weekend he was in the breakaway and pushing it. He also felt he carried the confidence of his 2025 season into the winter, after winning a stage and the overall at both the Junior Tour of Ireland and Volta Portugal Juniores.
"I think it was good, it was only really at the end of the year that the form was coming in, from Nationals onwards. And after the Junior Tour, when I went to Portugal, I already had that GC win so I knew how to defend a jersey. And winning another one was nice.
"Last year was only my second proper year being coached. And now I'm into my third year, and I think the legs are flying."
