Ronan O'Connor, who looks like one of the most promising U23 riders for Ireland at present, has exited the Italian development team Colpack Ballan in favour of a place on a now Luxembourg-registered UCI Continental team.
The 20-year-old, who started with Orwell Wheelers and won the Irish junior road race title in 2020, came into his own for Colpack Ballan at the end of last season with a series of very strong results.
However, after sponsorship changes on the team for 2024 the line-up was changed to bring in Hungarian riders, to align the team with its new backers, and now O'Connor is on the move.
He will ride for Global 6 United, a UCI Continental team previously registered in New Zealand but now in Luxembourg.
Now entering its fourth season at Continental level, it has ridden a series of UCI-ranked races in Europe and Asia in recent years.
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Last season it secured invites to events such as; Tour de Taiwan (2.1), Sibiu Cycling Tour (2.1), International Tour of Hellas (2.1), Flèche du Sud (2.2), Volta a Portugal em Bicicleta (2.1) and Tour of Britain (1.Pro).
That schedule of racing is comprised of bigger, harder, events for O'Connor and should hopefully aid his development after a very strong finish to last season in Italy when he returned to competition after injury.
While O'Connor had hoped to stay to Colpack Ballan - also a Continental team - for this year, once a big new Hungarian sponsor was secured by the team owners, they brought in a group of Hungarian riders.
Their arrival reduced the number of spaces in the line-up for those who were neither Italian nor Hungarian.
However, the Enniskerry rider will still get exposure to good quality racing and with two years remaining at U23 level, he should be a key rider for the national team this year and next and will look to ride races such as Tour de l'Avenir.
