Conor Dunne takes the British Junior Time Trial Championship
Conor Dunne (GlendeneCC/Ridley/Vitesse/OCE) and Roger's nephew rounded off his UK junior racing career on Sunday (5 Sept) by taking the Junior British Time Trial Championship title, achieving his main target for his last year as a junior and adding to the 25 mile time-trial title taken earlier in the season. Rubbing shoulders with Bradley Wiggins and other top Continental pros who appeared in the senior event, Conor covered the 33k undulating course in the Towy Valley, near Camarthen, South Wales in 44.02, 12 seconds faster than junior National road race and World madison champion Dan McLay (Hargroves cycles), and 13 seconds ahead of third fastest Ryan Mullen (Ireland and Planet X, but not counting in the British Championships). Oliver Rossi being the third counting (4th fastest) rider for the BTTC
Conor will spend the remains of the season racing in Belgium, and plans to ride for the South East Cycling Team in an international two day stage race in Koksijde (Keizer der Juniores) on 18-19 September. Beyond that is a time for some big changes. Having passed his A-levels and secured a place to study engineering at Loughborough University he has opted to defer his studies and take time out to pursue cycling more seriously, with a Belgium under-23 team being the preferred route. Many offers have already come in, but Conor is also eager to secure national selection and ride some of the more prestigious international races. British Cycling which is more focused on the track has not yet recognised Conor’s potential or called him up for any international road race duties, but his Irish heritage (with grandparents from Offaly and Mayo) offers a possible solution to this problem.
His training week with us at Velo Vercors in August with the other members of the Glendene Junior hopefully played a part in reaching his full potential. For more details and photos of the training camp visit our Blog.