Carrick Wheelers Youngest Star Michael O’Loughlin writes about his time in Italy last weekend as part of the European Canyon Young Heroes Team…
It’s been a very different few weeks from what I’m used to normally in January and February. It all started when I sent away an application form with photos for the Canyon Young Heroes 15+ Team in December. A few weeks later, I returned from school one evening to find that Dominic from Canyon had emailed me to say that I was selected for the team. I was delighted to have been picked for the team because I knew the team had a great programme for young riders.
In the space of 24 hours my flights were booked for our first meeting in Tuscany. As there are no direct flights, my Dad didn’t need much encouragement to travel with me. I had to print off two copies of a contract, sign it and post it to Koblenz. I provided the details of the frame size I required, plus crank length, handlebar width, stem length and gearing. Campag 11 speed. Another new experience.
I play a lot of sports to keep fit in winter and normally only tick over on the bike until February. It wouldn’t do to be going bad in Italy, so I joined in the Iverk Produce Carrick Wheelers Saturday bashing session with threshold work on the hills and my Mam drove me to the midpoint of the club’s Sunday spins. The second half is always more ‘interesting’ than the first. A few weeks of that and my fitness was much improved. Thanks to Rory Wyley for the pain and suffering!
We flew to Pisa via Paris and literally ran at full speed from one terminal to another in Charles de Gaulle Airport as we had only 35 minutes from getting out of one plane and collapsing onto another. We just made it. Our big bags didn’t, but we expected that and had enough with us for 24 hours. After we reported our missing bags, we arrived into an empty arrivals hall. There was just one man holding up a Canyon sign waiting for us.
Erik Zabel!
Erik drove us the 45 minute journey to the estate of Andrea Tafi. His English is better than ours. He told us loads about what we would be doing,about Mark Cavendish, Katusha and Erik’s son Rick. And he asked me questions, which was cool.
Il Borghetto Andrea Tafi is a beautiful location in the Tuscan hills outside Lamporecchio. There are self-catering holiday apartments and an outdoor swimming pool. This was to be our home for the next three nights. I had a room to myself the first night with two German riders Karl and Jonas in the room downstairs.
We met Andrea Tafi and he guided our convoy to a local restaurant. Andrea is a really friendly guy with a permanent smile on his face. We really felt welcome. Lots of languages were being spoken – German, French, Danish, Swedish. But mainly English thankfully.
On Friday morning, we woke up to find that all of our brand new Canyons were lined up outside the building. Mine had my name on it and an Irish flag down the inside of the fork. Our Canyons were black and orange and there were white ones for the junior team whish Tafi runs.
After sorting out our positions, we went for a group ride with Erik, Andrea and the Polisportive Monsummanese team. The bike felt different. In a very good way. A lively pace was set. What was different from home was that both riders peeled off the front at the same time after they had done their bit. So, everybody changed positions faster.
Halfway through the spin, we hit a climb. The Italians all appeared at the front and the pace went up. I held my position. It was fast, but not too hard. At the top we stopped. The group had split and I was in the front group. I was delighted as I knew then that I wasn’t out of my depth.
On Friday evening we had another great Italian meal. It really is the best food. Saturday was spent on the bikes with a film crew. We rode over and back the same bit of road a good few times, taking different shots.
That evening, we travelled to a team presentation. Each of us were brought to the front by while the announcer called out our palmares in Italian. A special custom ‘Flandre’ edition Canyon with Super Record was presented to Andrea Tafi. Then his team was presented and 250 people sat down to a dinner that went on until nearly midnight.
All too soon, we were on our last spin led by Erik Zabel on Sunday morning. Tuscany has amazing roads. Cyclists are everywhere. Then lunch in the town of Vinci (home of Leonardo) and back to Pisa Airport. But the drama didn’t end there. Our plane was forced to turn around after 15 minutes in the air due to a broken windscreen. We were bussed to Florence, put up in a hotel for 6 hours sleep and flew to Paris the next morning.
My bike returned to Germany with the others and is being sent out by Canyon as they would do if I had bought it through their website. I got a spare 11 speed 16-26 cassette from Canyon for my training wheels. Our next Young Heroes assignment will be the 6 day Youth Tour of Assen in Holland in late July. Some of the team will also ride a 4 day race in Hamburg in August.
Many thanks to Dominic, Thomas, Christopher and Tim in Canyon. And of course, our mentors Erik and Andrea for a weekend I’ll never forget.
Michael
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