Report and results courtesy of Killian, photos as watermarked, with thanks to both!
Killian told the Belgian Project: “I spent the first half of the season trying to balance studying for my leaving certificate with racing. Almost all of the racing was in Ireland apart from 2 weeks I spent in Italy around Easter. My first race there had one long climb in the middle which was where I’d have to make the difference. I attacked towards the top and got a gap over the top while winning the KOM classification. Unfortunately I was caught on the long flat run into the finish, but I was a good confidence booster“
“I then went to my first ever UCI race with the Eroica Nations Cup, it was also my 4th ever junior race, so it was a bit of a shock to the system. I managed to hold the front group on every climb in the race and was in the remaining group of 10 over the hardest climb on the second last stage. It all came back together in the valley but for me that was really reassuring and showed me that I could compete with the best juniors in the world. After that I had to return home to prepare for my exams”
“I took part in a few Irish races but then had to take 6 weeks off racing to focus on school. I kept training as much as I could throughout this period to be in good shape for the nationals. Unfortunately I couldn’t take part in the TT because it was on at the same time as one of my exams, but I was really looking forward to the road race. I got into the early break after 3km of the race and we were caught after 30km. then I went again and bridged to the winning break of the day, and we stayed away for the last 50km. I was able to secure the podium in a sprint and was very happy with it. I then went back to Italy to get back to racing. In my first race there I was caught in a crash and fractured my elbow which meant I wouldn’t be able to race for a while, so I decided to come home and get ready for the Junior Tour of Ireland which started 10 days after the crash. In the first few stages there I was really struggling with my elbow. I couldn’t hold the bars properly or even get out of the saddle, but it was getting better each day. I got in breakaways on every stage, unfortunately none of them worked but I was happy to be back racing and at a good level“
“After the JTOI I travelled back to Italy for the last part of the season. I took part in my second ever UCI race GP Sportivi Loria where I was in the lead group of 6 over the final KOM. It was a huge confidence boot to be in the small group with the winner of Roubaix and riders with world tour development contracts for next season. Unfortunately we were caught on the flat run in and it came to a sprint where I finished 27th”
“The next weekend I got my first win of the season in stage 1 of Trofeo Dell Aglianico Dell’ Vulture. I was in the breakaway for 90km and got away solo in the cross winds as a thunderstorm started. I came in alone as the finish line was being held up by marshals. The next day was the second stage of the race, and my goal was to hold the GC lead. I made the front split of 6 over the climbs and we stayed together until the finish with 3 guys coming back from behind. The race was decided by a sprint where I finished 4th and thought I had the GC in the bag. Unfortunately I hadn’t realized that KOM points counted towards GC and therefore hadn’t gone for them which cost me the GC by 3 points“
“My most recent race was Coppa Pietro Linari one of the biggest one-day Italian races on the calendar. I went on the attack after the first KOM and got in a 3 man break which stayed away for 50km being caught with 15km to go. While in the break I won every KOM sprint, so I won the classification as well as finishing 2nd in the points classification. The race came to a reduced group sprint where I finished 16th but was really happy with how I performed on a relatively flat course with such a strong field“ yours in sport, Killian
