Kilcullen cyclist does well in first international race

Kilcullen cyclist JB Murphy competed in the Champions of Europe Cyclo-Cross 2016, held in Pont-Chateu in France, and came 42nd out of 52 competitors in what was his first international race. He was competing in the Men Juniors.

He describes the course as being 'extremely fast and hard with lots of power climbs', and though he started last on the grid he moved up in position a lot to be on the same time as the leader in the first time around the track.

"The course was extremely fast and hard with lots of power climbs. The start was so fast but I moved up in position a lot as I started from last row on the grid. I was on the same time as the leader first time around. Then it began to split up a lot. I got into a small group of about five riders and we began to chase the German rider. We finally caught him after about a lap of chasing. Then the pace hit me up the drags. I was dropped by that group to be picked up by another one. The recovery wasn't much but helped. They were attacking but I sat in and they were always brought back. On the last lap the back wheel began to lose a lot of air. So I went in for a pit stop. I really pushed hard and caught back the little group of four riders I was in. When I caught them it was the hardest part of the course (big drag and then planks) this was about 600m to the finish and I gave it everything but wasn't enough as a rider from Germany and Luxembourg came around me. Happy with my first race abroad and learnt a lot. Finished 42nd in the end. Such a difference to racing at home."

NOTE: This story has been corrected to report that it was JB Murphy who competed, not John Walker, due to a confusion in emails.