Michael O'Loughlin leads the junior time trial at the World Championships as he finishes what was the ride of his life.
By Brian Canty
In Ponferrada
Following on from Ryan Mullen’s silver medal winning ride at the World Championships in Spain yesterday, young Michael O’Loughlin has put in the ride of his life to claim a top 10 placing in the junior time trial this morning.
The 17-year-old came home in 8th place, covering the 36.1km route in a time of 37 minutes and 55 seconds, some 1: 42 off the winning time of Germany’s Lennard Kamna who takes home the famous rainbow jersey and gold medal.
American rider Adrien Costa won silver, some 44.66 seconds adrift. Michael Storer of Australia continued his nation’s excellent start to these championships in Ponferadda by winning the bronze medal. He was 58.11 seconds off the winning time.
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As well as O’Loughlin’s storming ride, the other Irish man in the test Mark Downey came home in 34th place, some 3:09 off the winning time.
Young Downey focussed his season this year mainly on track racing, and during his major goal of the season in the shape of the European Track Championships in Portugal in July he overcame a crash in the points race to take a silver medal for Ireland.
O'Loughlin gets his campaign underway, rolling down the start ramp and onto the Worlds course in Spain.
A veteran of the World Championships, having ridden both the junior road race and TT in Florence last year, Downey has also won the national TT championships since his European exploits.
He will be a little disappointed not to have crept into the top 20 today, though the switch of focus from the track to road late in the season was always going to be tough for him. And he still remains the only junior of the current talented crop to win a medal at a major championships.
But this morning’s test was all about O’Loughlin.
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The Carrick man went out very fast and was the leader on the road at the various time checks, and still occupied that slot when he finished.
He occupied the hot seat, which is sat in my the leader of the test, and received a lot of TV time both during his ride because it was so fast and also while in that hot seat on the podium.
O'Loughlin seemed to enjoy his time in the hotseat and was there for a very long time thanks to one of the best rides of the day.
In the end, as some of the fancied riders who were off towards the back end of the field came home, O’Loughlin was nudged out of the leader’s position and then slipped down the standings.
However, having finished in 24th place at the European Championships time trial earlier this year, his 8th place today was a massive result.
He rolled down the ramp at 11am local time and managed to shatter the previous best times at the opening two checkpoints to emerge as a real contender.
He then zipped up the climb with three kilometres to go and pedalled a furious tempo on the descent, throwing the bike into the final few corners and really powering up the straight to the finish line.
He crossed the line a spent force having given his all and proudly took his place in the gold medal hot seat, hammering the previous best time of Mikolaj Gutek of Poland by 15 seconds.
And even though he would be beaten by seven other riders, his 8th place today is one of the best rides ever by an Irish man at a Worlds and is a spectacular personal achievement for him.
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