Seth Dunwoody has won a silver medal in the U23 TT at the National Road Championships and may take more silverware from the U23-elite men's race on Sunday. However, he was laughing about the idea many people had him as their favourite for the road race title.
The first-year U23 rider was as keen to talk about last week's Giro Next Gen as he was this weekend's title race as he chatted to stickybottle sitting in a van in Kilbeggan, Co Westmeath, after completing his silver medal TT ride. Not only did Dunwoody win a stage in Italy last week, his Bahrain Victorious team snatched overall victory on the last stage.
And it was clear the Armagh teenager was still on a high from last week, with losing U23 TT gold to Adam Rafferty (Hagens Berman Jayco) incapable of knocking his mood. He said it was easy to keep his focus, and simply take a rest, over the last week as he prepared for the championships.
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"The concentration is always there," he said of resting, but not switching off, over the last week. "I’m the kind of the person who doesn’t sit on my wins too much. I am always focusing on the next win. I have just been riding the bike easy (since Giro Next Gen ended last year). I've had a nice few days."
He also believes he has come out of Giro Next Gen in great shape physically, something he believed was helped by his stage win and the team snatching overall victory on the last day with Slovenian Jakob Omrzel.
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"We ended on such a high the body didn’t feel tired. The whole team was on such a buzz, we genuinely forgot that we'd done eight days of racing," he said, though added some fatigue set in after the travel back to Ireland.
And having raced in the heat of Italy last week, the colder conditions and rain on a dull evening in Westmeath for the TT title race - promoted by Lakeside Wheelers - was a different proposition.
"The TT was good, but it was a bit of a shock with the weather, to be honest," he laughed. "I wasn’t prepared for it to be a wet one. But I'm happy enough with how the body performed. I was expecting to be a bit sluggish and tired. I was just satisfied to get the job done, got everything I had out of the body, so it is what it is."
Over the 25.4km distance, Rafferty, who also won a Giro Next Gen stage last week, beat Dunwoody by 23 seconds. Liam O'Brien (Lidl Trek Future Racing) was 3rd at 27 seconds. So after TT silver, how does Dunwoody feel for the road race?
"Kind of confident, but I’ve no real expectations," he said. "I know people will probably put expectations on me as one of the favourites. But I am just looking forward to racing at home again on home roads because I love racing in Ireland.
"A lot of people say it is boring with the smaller numbers. But I love the racing at home, it’s so intense. And, you know, you can kind of undertrain racing abroad, sitting in bunches cruising around. But I love getting stuck into the racing here."
