Despite a very promising start to the season where he finished in 30th place in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, Sean Downey of An Post-Chain Reaction has struggled since then due to illness. However, he’s hopeful that he’s over the worst of it, and will be back on form soon. We spoke to the Down man about the opening few months of his season.
“I’m just back after a sinus infection. I picked it up just after Kuurne,” he says. “I came home from the race and felt really weak and tired. I never really thought too much of it until I started in West- Vlaanderen where I felt really below par. I came nearly last in the time-trial and that was an indication that something was really wrong with me.”
“I took 2 or 3 days off after West Vlaanderen. I missed a kermesse, another race the following weekend, and started training again, thinking I was over the worst of it. There was another race the following Wednesday, and I lasted just 20kms.”
“I had a 7-day antibiotic course and I’m feeling that has cleared me up. I’m just wrapping up well, eating plenty, drinking plenty. I didn’t realise how bad I was at the time, but when I look back and see how badly my sleep was disturbed, I realise how much I was affected.”
Now that he seems to be over his illness, Downey is building up to his next series of races. “After Limburg, I’ve the Circuit des Ardennes, Rutland, Azerbaijan and the Rás.”
In last year’s Rás, Downey made it into the crucial break on Stage 5 from Caherciveen to Clonakilty, which gained nearly seven minutes on the rest of the field. He finished the race in 6th place overall, 58” behind the race winner Clemens Fankhauser, which was his best performance in the race.
He hopes to do even better this year, as he says, “I always like to do well in the Rás and Azerbaijan I could do well in. “We did Azerbaijan last year, but in the last two days, I got food poisoning. I know now to be more careful with the food that I eat and what I drink.”
The UCI 2.1 Tour of Azerbaijan takes place from the 6th until the 10th of May, and features a mix of National, Continental and Pro Continental teams.
In addition to his result in the Ras, Downey was also runner-up in the National Championships Road Race behind team-mate Ryan Mullen. He also had top 20 finishes in GP Izola, Omloop van het Waasland and the Rund um Koln amongst other races.
Despite his difficult start, the Down rider is still optimistic of a good season, as he says, “My figures over the winter were really good with regard to power and I kept the weight off. I was going in the right direction and I just need to get back to where I was. Regarding the end of the season, my targets are the Tour of Britain, Overijse and the Ride London classic. Those races are a shop window. If you do well in them, you get seen.”
