Conor McGoldrick interview: from Portugal to Belgium via (almost) winning the Rás
Jack Beavis talks to Conor McGoldrick about nearly winning the Rás, his first big international racing experiences, his hopes for the nationals and his ambitions for the rest of the season
“I backed myself in the sprint, up against two climbers I knew I had a good chance” explains Richardsons Trek DAS rider Conor McGoldrick, recalling the biggest victory of his career: the opening stage of the Rás Tailteann, Ireland’s premier stage race. Taking the yellow jersey and defending it until the fateful final stage, McGoldrick came home with the King of the Hills jersey to add to his stage one win and etched himself in the mind of a new legion of fans in both the UK and Ireland.
It was just mad, the whole week was. Non-stop attacks, it was like no other race I’ve done
The 2023 Rás is the highlight of a short but successful career for the Stratford-upon-Avon native, who is closing in on a seat at the top table of domestic cycling after consistently impressing over the past few seasons.
Taking up the sport relatively late, McGoldrick started by riding to rowing training at university. “I started riding to rowing, and then to university and then packed in the rowing,” he says, pausing for thought when asked if he realised his potential after the first few pedal strokes. “I’ve always been sporty, for the first year I didn’t really train too hard, I just enjoyed riding my bike with my mates. There was a group of us from the university club that would train and race together.”
Conor McGoldrick wins stage 1 of the 2023 Rás. Image: Lorraine O’Sullivan
Taking a year out after university to train full-time before starting work in the financial sector in London, McGoldrick rose through the ranks quickly, moving from a second category race licence to elite in the space of a few months. A bumper 2021 included six National B wins riding for Primera-TeamJobs with McGoldrick’s stated aim “to see how good I could get in a year”.
It was one of the first races after lockdown, one of my first National Bs, I rode away with an hour to go and crossed the line solo
“It couldn’t have gone much better” he admits. Recalling his first win of the period, and still his favourite on these shores, McGoldrick describes his ride at the Mendips Test Road Race with pride. “It was one of the first races after lockdown, one of my first National Bs, I rode away with an hour to go and crossed the line solo.”
After a fruitless search for a contract with a UCI team, McGoldrick landed on the Richardsons-Trek DAS Elite Development Team for 2022 and has stayed there since. In his maiden year with the team he claim third in the Newark Town Centre Race, his best result in a National A race. It’s a result McGoldrick will struggle to repeat this year with the vast majority of major races in the calendar taking place in the north; the 25-year-old a prime example of the struggle riders based in the south face. “I’d love to target the National Circuit Series this year but sadly I live in London and most of the criteriums are very far away! There’s Guildford this year, which moves up to a National A, I’ll be there after racing it for the last two years [as a National B]. Unfortunately with working, it’s a lot to travel up for an hour of racing. Otley was a lot of fun last year but I can’t justify the trip.”
“It was a pretty random one!” McGoldrick jokes when asked about his 2023 season opener, a pair of UCI races in Portugal; the single-day Classica de Arrábida and the five-day Volta ao Alentejo stage race. “The team [BAI Sicasal Petro de Luanda, a Portuguese UCI Continental outfit], were looking for good riders without a UCI team who could go out and do a race or two with them. Someone put me in contact with them and it was a week after they first got in touch with me I was flying out.”
The other big surprise was that the level wasn’t that much higher than a National A, it was very comparable, it’s just the way it was raced
It was McGoldrick’s first taste of UCI racing, the handful of National As on the calendar and the National Road Championships the highest level he’d previously competed at; the Manx International his only stage race. “It felt like a pro race!” he says excitedly when asked about the difference. “It was incredibly controlled which surprised me. The break would go, a team would control it and it would end in a sprint. The other big surprise was that the level wasn’t that much higher than a National A, it was very comparable, it’s just the way it was raced.”
After a DNF in the Classica de Arrábida, McGoldrick’s luck was also out for the Volta ao Alentejo which followed. “I ended up crashing twice, once on the first stage and then on the third stage where I dislocated my shoulder. Stage 4 was the big mountain stage with some big time gaps, but after stage 3 I was just trying to finish. I managed to finish the final two stages, but I was beaten up by the end of it.”
McGoldrick prepared for the race by spending time on his turbo, putting in regular three-hour indoor sessions. “They aren’t for everyone, but I enjoy it and it enables me to get a lot of good quality training which can be tough living in central London.” Unable to train in warm weather for a week with his Richardsons-Trek DAS teammates due to work commitments, the Portuguese trip came as a culture shock in terms of the weather as well as racing.
In yellow at the Ràs. Image: Lorraine O’Sullivan
Four days in yellow on the Emerald Isle
“It was just mad, the whole week was. Non-stop attacks, it was like no other race I’ve done.” The first words McGoldrick says about the Rás Tailteann set up a convincing account of why the five day race has such a fearsome reputation.
The Ràs returned to the calendar last year after a three-year absence and pits the best Irish riders against amateur teams from across the world. 33 teams took to the start with McGoldrick’s Richardsons-Trek DAS outfit setting off across the Irish Sea with a carefree attitude. “As a team we had no firm ambitions heading to the Rás. We had no leader, it was just a case of seeing how the first stage went and taking it from there. We’d have loved a stage win, a jersey was a stretch, so to win the first stage and be in yellow was not what we were expecting.”
The amount of detail the 25-year-old Londoner recalls about the race is remarkable, as he delivers a blow-by-blow account of his crowning glory, his stage one victory. After a whirlwind and frantic first half of the stage, McGoldrick attacked with a group of twenty around two-thirds of the way through the 155km stage as many riders began to fade.
I was relieved it was two climbers that had come across to me, I was pretty confident in my sprint and kept it together, crossing the line first
“Everyone started working and we got away. I went for the second King of the Hills summit and after winning that, I knew that crossing the line first over the final one would give me the Polka Dot jersey for the next day. I attacked solo coming into that final KoH sprint, all in over the top, and had a gap of about a minute with 20km to go. I was joined by Dan Gardner and Joe Laverick with about 10km to go and the three of us worked well towards the finish. I was relieved it was two climbers that had come across to me, I was pretty confident in my sprint and kept it together, crossing the line first.”
McGoldrick ended the day with two jerseys and a stage win, far beyond the team’s expectations, and something they would set out to defend. “I think a lot of people expected us to go all in on the GC, but the way the KoH points worked meant that if I secured a few more points on the second stage I’d essentially win it. So to make sure we came home from the race with something we took control on the climbs and I took almost maximum points that day.
“The third day there were multiple crashes and a couple of splits, the pressure was really piled on us as a team. We rode really well together and got through it, defending the GC for another day.”
In yellow at the Ràs. Image: Lorraine O’Sullivan
McGoldrick was always sure to use the collective “we” when speaking about the race, and it is clear that as well as the huge gratitude he has for his teammates in helping him achieve the KoH classification and a stage win, they were victories for the team as a collective. He singled out Alex Peters, the former Team Sky recruit as ‘the key man’ in the five-rider outfit. “He’s just such a cool head and has done it all before. He was second in the Rás when it was a UCI race, so he was in exactly the same position we found ourselves in, losing the lead on the final day.” McGoldrick revealed without a hint of irony, as he began to tell the story of the final stage.
Despite the experience of Peters and the best efforts of the Richardsons-Trek DAS team, history would repeat itself as a frantic final stage ended with McGoldrick relinquishing the jersey to Dillon Corkery; the Irishman the biggest beneficiary of the elastic finally snapping. A five-man break he was part of gained over two minutes on the peloton and it was enough to demote McGoldrick to third overall. “I think people wanted an Irish winner, although it wasn’t like that” explained McGoldrick when asked if he was defending the race lead against a nation, not individual riders. “I’m somewhat Irish myself, I have an Irish passport and my parents are from Dublin” he adds, giving a unique provenance to his performance.
On stage 4 we let one go out to three minutes and chased it back, so we thought we could do that again. But the break this time was so strong and we weren’t getting time gaps as regularly as we’d have liked
“We were somewhat happy to let a break go on stage 5. On stage 4 we let one go out to three minutes and chased it back, so we thought we could do that again. But the break this time was so strong and we weren’t getting time gaps as regularly as we’d have liked. When we found out they had three minutes it was too late – the final 40km were on a finishing circuit and it was very technical, almost like a criterium. By the time we got there, there was no bringing them back.”
In yellow at the Ràs. Image: Lorraine O’Sullivan
Podiums in Belgium
It was onto Belgium earlier this month for McGoldrick and seven of his teammates, making the short trip across the Channel for three kermesse races. Kermesses are a style of racing unique to the country; similar to a criterium but on a longer lap with a greater distance.
“There wasn’t much going on in the UK that weekend so we went for the kermesses as good racing and training. It went pretty well, I managed to get into the break every single day,” says McGoldrick, who ended the trip with third places in Gullegem and Haringe, puncturing out of Moorslede.
In Belgium no one really knows who you are, it gives you that freedom to race aggressively
“The only experience of Belgium I’d had before was an inter-club race last September. It was sort of in-between a kermesse and a UCI race, a ‘Belgian National A’. That was pretty hard, it was a big field with some Continental teams riding. But these kermesses were completely amateur, much closer to a National B, it’s super aggressive. In the UK you can sometimes have a target on your back and it can make a National B quite challenging, but in Belgium no one really knows who you are, it gives you that freedom to race aggressively.”
2022 National Men’s Circuit Series – Round 6 – Newark Town Centre Races – Newark, England – Podium – WiV Sungod’s Jacob Scott takes first place with Robert Scott second & Richardson Trek DAS’ Conor McGoldrick third. Image: Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com
The National Road Championships and beyond
McGoldrick had planned to race the cancelled London Dynamo Summer Road Race last Sunday as a final tune-up to the weekend’s National Road Championships where he is entered in the circuit race and the road race. Friday’s criterium gives McGoldrick the chance to build on his third place from Newark last year, although he will do so in the presence of World Tour competitors. He was relatively nonplussed by the suggestion they would change the race, however. “I’ve had a bit of bad luck in the criterium championships in the last couple of years. We’ve had WorldTour riders and it hasn’t actually felt that different [to a National A Criterium]. Because it’s only an hour, the difference isn’t as noticeable.”
I was 21st in the road race last year, if I can beat that I’ll be a very happy man. Looking at the course I think it’ll be the biggest day on the bike I’ve ever had
Sunday’s road race will be an all together different prospect with almost 4000m of climbing on a course littered with steep gradients. Finishing up the steep slopes of Saltburn Bank, McGoldrick is bullish but realistic about his chances. “I was 21st in the road race last year, if I can beat that I’ll be a very happy man. Looking at the course I think it’ll be the biggest day on the bike I’ve ever had!”
From the National Road Championships and the Lancaster GP, the team’s next goal is the Kreiz Breizh Elites, a UCI 2.2 stage race in France at the end of July. As well as another chance to experience a UCI race, McGoldrick has his sights set on the National Road Series events in the late summer and Autumn: “So far a big result in a National A Road Race has escaped me. My best is 12th at the 2022 Lincoln GP, so a good top ten, maybe get close to the podium, that would be special. Lancaster and Ryedale are a bit out of my reach, but Lincoln is my favourite and with Beaumont and now Klondike in October there should be opportunities for a rider like me – I’m leaning towards a sprinter but I can certainly get round a tough race.”
It’s quite hard to work on things and test strategies when the races are so far apart. There’s a lot of pressure to get a result on that particular day because it will be a long time until the opportunity comes round again
The difficulties of the UK calendar again crop up in conversation. McGoldrick, like a lot of riders, left rueing the lack of National Road Series events. “It’s quite hard to work on things and test strategies when the races are so far apart. There’s a lot of pressure to get a result on that particular day because it will be a long time until the opportunity comes round again.”
2022 Rapha Lincoln GP – Lincoln, Lincolnshire, UK – Richardson Trek’s Conor McGoldrick. Image: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com
Speaking of the future, McGoldrick still has a lot of potential at only 25 and he remains intent on making the move to a UCI team. “I’d love to take the next step up and do some more racing abroad. I’ve had a taste of it with Portugal and Ireland and the opportunity to do more UCI races would be fantastic.
“There’s not loads of opportunities and a lot of good riders, but it’s something I’m definitely looking to do.”
“I backed myself in the sprint, up against two climbers I knew I had a good chance” explains Richardsons Trek DAS rider Conor McGoldrick, recalling the biggest victory of his career: the opening stage of the Rás Tailteann, Ireland’s premier stage race. Taking the yellow jersey and defending it until the fateful final stage, McGoldrick came home with the King of the Hills jersey to add to his stage one win and etched himself in the mind of a new legion of fans in both the UK and Ireland.
The 2023 Rás is the highlight of a short but successful career for the Stratford-upon-Avon native, who is closing in on a seat at the top table of domestic cycling after consistently impressing over the past few seasons.
Taking up the sport relatively late, McGoldrick started by riding to rowing training at university. “I started riding to rowing, and then to university and then packed in the rowing,” he says, pausing for thought when asked if he realised his potential after the first few pedal strokes. “I’ve always been sporty, for the first year I didn’t really train too hard, I just enjoyed riding my bike with my mates. There was a group of us from the university club that would train and race together.”
Taking a year out after university to train full-time before starting work in the financial sector in London, McGoldrick rose through the ranks quickly, moving from a second category race licence to elite in the space of a few months. A bumper 2021 included six National B wins riding for Primera-TeamJobs with McGoldrick’s stated aim “to see how good I could get in a year”.
“It couldn’t have gone much better” he admits. Recalling his first win of the period, and still his favourite on these shores, McGoldrick describes his ride at the Mendips Test Road Race with pride. “It was one of the first races after lockdown, one of my first National Bs, I rode away with an hour to go and crossed the line solo.”
After a fruitless search for a contract with a UCI team, McGoldrick landed on the Richardsons-Trek DAS Elite Development Team for 2022 and has stayed there since. In his maiden year with the team he claim third in the Newark Town Centre Race, his best result in a National A race. It’s a result McGoldrick will struggle to repeat this year with the vast majority of major races in the calendar taking place in the north; the 25-year-old a prime example of the struggle riders based in the south face. “I’d love to target the National Circuit Series this year but sadly I live in London and most of the criteriums are very far away! There’s Guildford this year, which moves up to a National A, I’ll be there after racing it for the last two years [as a National B]. Unfortunately with working, it’s a lot to travel up for an hour of racing. Otley was a lot of fun last year but I can’t justify the trip.”
Winter sun in Portugal
“It was a pretty random one!” McGoldrick jokes when asked about his 2023 season opener, a pair of UCI races in Portugal; the single-day Classica de Arrábida and the five-day Volta ao Alentejo stage race. “The team [BAI Sicasal Petro de Luanda, a Portuguese UCI Continental outfit], were looking for good riders without a UCI team who could go out and do a race or two with them. Someone put me in contact with them and it was a week after they first got in touch with me I was flying out.”
It was McGoldrick’s first taste of UCI racing, the handful of National As on the calendar and the National Road Championships the highest level he’d previously competed at; the Manx International his only stage race. “It felt like a pro race!” he says excitedly when asked about the difference. “It was incredibly controlled which surprised me. The break would go, a team would control it and it would end in a sprint. The other big surprise was that the level wasn’t that much higher than a National A, it was very comparable, it’s just the way it was raced.”
After a DNF in the Classica de Arrábida, McGoldrick’s luck was also out for the Volta ao Alentejo which followed. “I ended up crashing twice, once on the first stage and then on the third stage where I dislocated my shoulder. Stage 4 was the big mountain stage with some big time gaps, but after stage 3 I was just trying to finish. I managed to finish the final two stages, but I was beaten up by the end of it.”
McGoldrick prepared for the race by spending time on his turbo, putting in regular three-hour indoor sessions. “They aren’t for everyone, but I enjoy it and it enables me to get a lot of good quality training which can be tough living in central London.” Unable to train in warm weather for a week with his Richardsons-Trek DAS teammates due to work commitments, the Portuguese trip came as a culture shock in terms of the weather as well as racing.
Four days in yellow on the Emerald Isle
“It was just mad, the whole week was. Non-stop attacks, it was like no other race I’ve done.” The first words McGoldrick says about the Rás Tailteann set up a convincing account of why the five day race has such a fearsome reputation.
The Ràs returned to the calendar last year after a three-year absence and pits the best Irish riders against amateur teams from across the world. 33 teams took to the start with McGoldrick’s Richardsons-Trek DAS outfit setting off across the Irish Sea with a carefree attitude. “As a team we had no firm ambitions heading to the Rás. We had no leader, it was just a case of seeing how the first stage went and taking it from there. We’d have loved a stage win, a jersey was a stretch, so to win the first stage and be in yellow was not what we were expecting.”
The amount of detail the 25-year-old Londoner recalls about the race is remarkable, as he delivers a blow-by-blow account of his crowning glory, his stage one victory. After a whirlwind and frantic first half of the stage, McGoldrick attacked with a group of twenty around two-thirds of the way through the 155km stage as many riders began to fade.
“Everyone started working and we got away. I went for the second King of the Hills summit and after winning that, I knew that crossing the line first over the final one would give me the Polka Dot jersey for the next day. I attacked solo coming into that final KoH sprint, all in over the top, and had a gap of about a minute with 20km to go. I was joined by Dan Gardner and Joe Laverick with about 10km to go and the three of us worked well towards the finish. I was relieved it was two climbers that had come across to me, I was pretty confident in my sprint and kept it together, crossing the line first.”
McGoldrick ended the day with two jerseys and a stage win, far beyond the team’s expectations, and something they would set out to defend. “I think a lot of people expected us to go all in on the GC, but the way the KoH points worked meant that if I secured a few more points on the second stage I’d essentially win it. So to make sure we came home from the race with something we took control on the climbs and I took almost maximum points that day.
“The third day there were multiple crashes and a couple of splits, the pressure was really piled on us as a team. We rode really well together and got through it, defending the GC for another day.”
McGoldrick was always sure to use the collective “we” when speaking about the race, and it is clear that as well as the huge gratitude he has for his teammates in helping him achieve the KoH classification and a stage win, they were victories for the team as a collective. He singled out Alex Peters, the former Team Sky recruit as ‘the key man’ in the five-rider outfit. “He’s just such a cool head and has done it all before. He was second in the Rás when it was a UCI race, so he was in exactly the same position we found ourselves in, losing the lead on the final day.” McGoldrick revealed without a hint of irony, as he began to tell the story of the final stage.
Despite the experience of Peters and the best efforts of the Richardsons-Trek DAS team, history would repeat itself as a frantic final stage ended with McGoldrick relinquishing the jersey to Dillon Corkery; the Irishman the biggest beneficiary of the elastic finally snapping. A five-man break he was part of gained over two minutes on the peloton and it was enough to demote McGoldrick to third overall. “I think people wanted an Irish winner, although it wasn’t like that” explained McGoldrick when asked if he was defending the race lead against a nation, not individual riders. “I’m somewhat Irish myself, I have an Irish passport and my parents are from Dublin” he adds, giving a unique provenance to his performance.
“We were somewhat happy to let a break go on stage 5. On stage 4 we let one go out to three minutes and chased it back, so we thought we could do that again. But the break this time was so strong and we weren’t getting time gaps as regularly as we’d have liked. When we found out they had three minutes it was too late – the final 40km were on a finishing circuit and it was very technical, almost like a criterium. By the time we got there, there was no bringing them back.”
Podiums in Belgium
It was onto Belgium earlier this month for McGoldrick and seven of his teammates, making the short trip across the Channel for three kermesse races. Kermesses are a style of racing unique to the country; similar to a criterium but on a longer lap with a greater distance.
“There wasn’t much going on in the UK that weekend so we went for the kermesses as good racing and training. It went pretty well, I managed to get into the break every single day,” says McGoldrick, who ended the trip with third places in Gullegem and Haringe, puncturing out of Moorslede.
“The only experience of Belgium I’d had before was an inter-club race last September. It was sort of in-between a kermesse and a UCI race, a ‘Belgian National A’. That was pretty hard, it was a big field with some Continental teams riding. But these kermesses were completely amateur, much closer to a National B, it’s super aggressive. In the UK you can sometimes have a target on your back and it can make a National B quite challenging, but in Belgium no one really knows who you are, it gives you that freedom to race aggressively.”
The National Road Championships and beyond
McGoldrick had planned to race the cancelled London Dynamo Summer Road Race last Sunday as a final tune-up to the weekend’s National Road Championships where he is entered in the circuit race and the road race. Friday’s criterium gives McGoldrick the chance to build on his third place from Newark last year, although he will do so in the presence of World Tour competitors. He was relatively nonplussed by the suggestion they would change the race, however. “I’ve had a bit of bad luck in the criterium championships in the last couple of years. We’ve had WorldTour riders and it hasn’t actually felt that different [to a National A Criterium]. Because it’s only an hour, the difference isn’t as noticeable.”
Sunday’s road race will be an all together different prospect with almost 4000m of climbing on a course littered with steep gradients. Finishing up the steep slopes of Saltburn Bank, McGoldrick is bullish but realistic about his chances. “I was 21st in the road race last year, if I can beat that I’ll be a very happy man. Looking at the course I think it’ll be the biggest day on the bike I’ve ever had!”
From the National Road Championships and the Lancaster GP, the team’s next goal is the Kreiz Breizh Elites, a UCI 2.2 stage race in France at the end of July. As well as another chance to experience a UCI race, McGoldrick has his sights set on the National Road Series events in the late summer and Autumn: “So far a big result in a National A Road Race has escaped me. My best is 12th at the 2022 Lincoln GP, so a good top ten, maybe get close to the podium, that would be special. Lancaster and Ryedale are a bit out of my reach, but Lincoln is my favourite and with Beaumont and now Klondike in October there should be opportunities for a rider like me – I’m leaning towards a sprinter but I can certainly get round a tough race.”
The difficulties of the UK calendar again crop up in conversation. McGoldrick, like a lot of riders, left rueing the lack of National Road Series events. “It’s quite hard to work on things and test strategies when the races are so far apart. There’s a lot of pressure to get a result on that particular day because it will be a long time until the opportunity comes round again.”
Speaking of the future, McGoldrick still has a lot of potential at only 25 and he remains intent on making the move to a UCI team. “I’d love to take the next step up and do some more racing abroad. I’ve had a taste of it with Portugal and Ireland and the opportunity to do more UCI races would be fantastic.
“There’s not loads of opportunities and a lot of good riders, but it’s something I’m definitely looking to do.”
Featured image: Ian Wrightson
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