Philip O'Connor (17) has started his second junior season with a bang; 2nd at the C1 Sliabh Luachra Clasaici last weekend, to Daire Feeley (Burren CC), he turned the tables on the prolific elite rider to win Galway Classic yesterday.
The Dungarvan Cycling Club teenager - an international as an U16 and last year as a first-year junior - is now really making a name for himself. More junior national team selection is a certainty. But the question may now be about what he can do when riding for Ireland rather than making the teams.
"I was sitting last going onto the final gravel sector and I kicked about 150 metres before the right hand turn because I wanted to be first into the final corners," he told stickybottle of his Galway Classic win. "I kicked and no-one was able to follow me."
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He said he was "delighted" to top yesterday's podium, which also included Feeley and Mitchell McLaughlin (Wheelbase Cabtech Castelli), pointing out they were top riders that he was very pleased to beat. O'Connor added his condition at present was behind where he was this time last year after some issues forced him off the bike for a prolonged period a couple of months ago.
If, as he suspects, he still has more condition to build, more improvements to make in the weeks ahead, he will be an even more serious proposition through this season.
However, he said riding in a three-man chasing group with Feeley and McLaughlin - who have looked among the very strongest on the home scene in recent weeks - was not for the feint-hearted.
Yesterday, McLaughlin had been in the breakaway but punctured out it and was scooped up by a chasing group that contained Feeley and O'Connor. Very soon it came down to the three of them, working hard to close up to the men still leading the race.
In that lead group, having made their move off the front very early, were: Patrick O'Sullivan (UCD Cycling Club) James Hanrahan and Ciaran Maguire (both Dan Morrissey Pissei) and Joe Nathan Matar (Orwell Wheelers).
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Milo Donaldson (UCD Cycling Club), Mark Shannon (Burren CC) and Paul Kennedy (Team Skyline) were also in the thick of it at the front of the race before things split on the final lap.
The three chasers - O'Connor, McLaughlin and Feeley - went hell for leather over the last lap and caught those four up ahead with about half a lap remaining. And though that seven-man front group was whittled down a little on the final gravel sector, five riders raced into the finish to fight for the win.
With a right turn, followed by a sharp left into the finishing straight, inside the last 400m, O'Connor - a 5th year student in Gort Community College - decided to get ahead before those corners. He thought, rightly as it happened, that grabbing the front position would reap dividends.
He rounded the final bend just ahead and had the power to take it all the way to the chequered flag; winning by one second from Feeley, McLaughlin, O'Sullivan and Matar, all on the same time. Then came Maguire and Hanrahan in 6th and 7th, at 29 and 42 seconds respectively.
The final three positions in the top 10 were filled by Donaldson, Shannon and Kennedy, in that order, just under 2½ minutes down on the winner.
Asked was he surprised to win, especially from a front group with such strong riders, O'Connor said: "A little bit, yes. It was very hard with the two boys (McLaughlin and Feeley), that time when the three of us were away in the group. So I'm delighted that it was such a strong podium to stand on top of.
"I spent a lot of January sick, so I'm a bit behind where I was last year. I had nearly three weeks off the bike in January with that sickness. So it's nice to find the legs."
As an U16 he was selected for the European Youth OIympics in 2023 and competed for the Irish junior team at Dornan Rás Mumhan last season. He was also on the national team again for the Grenchen Track Cycling Challenge in Switzerland in December, having already ridden the Europeans in Cottbus, Germany, last July.
Asked if he was hoping for more national team selection in the months ahead, he said: "Most definitely, yes. Definitely."
