Racing with one of the best development teams in Italy, Ronan O'Connor has worked away at his craft for these last two years. And now the progress is starting to show. The Irish 20-year-old - a beanpole climber with the Irish junior road race title in his palmares - has been in against the World Tour pros and has been holding his own.
His strong showing has been fleeting and has come too late for national team selection this year. But on the basis of the evidence of recent weeks, we can expect to see him in Irish kit next season, competing in some of the biggest races on the U23 international calendar.
The story of O'Connor's season is one of overdoing it, paying the price, then crashing hard. But for the 20-year-old Dubliner, 2023 has a happy ending. In this piece he walks us through the differences between the U23 Italian scene and how it compares to Irish racing as well as competing against the World Tour riders.
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He is different rider compared to 12 months ago, despite some heavy blows; changes to his training approach of late really paying off. And his recent performances against top tier pros - "I seemed to be a lot closer than I thought I would be" - bode very well for his remaining two seasons as an U23.
From Rathfarnham in south Dublin, and having started out with Orwell Wheelers, O'Connor won the Irish junior road race crown in 2020. He represented Ireland at both the Worlds and Europeans the following year. He then landed a place with Team Colpack Ballan for last year, when his best result came in U23-elite race, Zane Monte Cengio, where he placed 6th after 130km in hilly terrain.
Last season was the first of his European apprenticeship; bracing for the impact of longer, faster and hillier races and needing to adjust fast. "I think I was happy enough at the end of the year," he says now looking back. "I was always, like, top 30 in the national races, maybe top 20, and helping the teammates as well."
His team - a UCI Continental squad renowned from producing talent and getting invites to the top races - was clearly impressed with what they saw as O'Connor was asked back for this year.
He did what all ambitious riders do; knuckled down in winter with the plan of making further progress and being able to do more in races in Italy come the start of 2023 campaign. That's how it went, sort of. While he was still capable of doing what he did in races the previous year, and was perhaps a bit better, there was no spring in his step at the start of the 2023 season.
"I think I was just overtrained at the start of the year," he says. "I had a really good winter, but I think the problem was then I just kept on going and I didn't really recover after the races enough. I kept pushing the training. Then I broke my wrist."
That crash occurred in Gran Premio Lari at the end of May and, as O'Connor eventually needed an operation, he did not return to Italy to start racing again until late last month.
He got off to a great start, placing 4th in GP delle Colline del Chianti D’Elsa. That 115km event in Tuscany saw the Irish rider attacking the four-man lead group late in the contest. He pulled out a gap but was just caught by the other three before the line. He was then 10th two weeks ago in Astico Brenta.
"I feel a lot more refreshed now, just generally feeling fresher," he said of re-starting in Italy after his long crash-related lay-off. "I feel now again like I was when I was a junior, in that kind of shape, which is good."
O'Connor puts that down to trying to keep himself rested between races, rather than pushing the training too hard between competitive outings. While he did "big hours" training when home in Ireland recovering from his broken wrist, he says he has since "cut out the junk miles" and done better quality training in shorter sessions.
"It got harder and harder"
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His first couple of results having returned to Italy were confirmation his form was better than in the early season. Those results also secured him a start in Trofeo Matteotti (1.1) in Pescara last Sunday, racing against many of the biggest World Tour teams in the sport.
Of the 115 starters in the 195km event, fewer than 50 finished. O'Connor was one of the finishers; after 13 laps of a 15km circuit comprised exclusively of climbing and descending, with total elevation gain of 2,513m.
He placed 37th, some 1:35 down on winner Sjoerd Bax (UAE Team Emirates), who outsprinted a lead group that included riders like Michael Matthews (Jayco AlUla), Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates), Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) and Simon Yates (UAE Team Emirates).
"It was a really nice race," O'Connor said. "The start was full gas, everyone trying to get in the breakaway. You had a 3-4k climb every lap and a lot of people got dropped early on during that full gas part. Then it got more controlled after the breakaway went until gradually, every lap, the pace picked up; it got harder and harder.
"But I was looking around with one lap to go and I was still there and there was only 50 guys left in the group so that was pretty cool, to be there. I was hoping to finish in the font group but I maybe started a little bit too far back on the climb," he said. "And when a few people in front of me lost the wheel, I lost the front group."
And what is it like to race against the big names and their teams?
"It feels a little bit less chaotic in a way, everyone has good bike handling and it feels a bit safer I would say. At the start of the year I would have said, after the pro races I did, that the level was just so high. Maybe I was a bit off the mark at that stage. But last Sunday I seemed to be a lot closer than I thought I would be, which was nice."
And what of the comparison between racing in Ireland and riding the Italian national races?
"The under 23 races that I'm doing here…. there's just a lot more climbs, and they're longer climbs and just longer races; most of them are four hours. The under 23 races are not very controlled. It can be full gas for the whole race. The pro races are full gas at the start until the breakaway goes. Then after that it becomes very controlled.
"You see all the pro teams all in team order and the Continental teams are fighting to move up. And with the pro races, the pace just rises a couple of watts with every climb that passes. There's a really high pace every single climb. And then it's just ramped up gradually, very measured, which is interesting."
O'Connor says he hopes to stay with Team Colpack Ballan CSB next year, adding "it has been a great experience" so far. "It's a great set-up and it's very well run. I've definitely developed well as a rider in general - in terms of bike handling skills and teamwork. My descending has really improved dramatically just by even training with the guys here each day."
While O'Connor still has a series of races to run this year, he is very much looking forward to next year. He said in 2014 he wants to maintain his current routine of monitoring his training load to ensure he races fresh for as long as possible. He also has firm designs on making the Irish team, especially for hillier races.
"Next year I'll be hoping to get into the Tour de l'Avenir with the national team and the Worlds and races like that."
