{"id":139410,"date":"2025-05-28T18:48:17","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T18:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/139410\/"},"modified":"2025-05-28T18:48:17","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T18:48:17","slug":"inside-the-brutal-ronde-de-lisard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/139410\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the brutal Ronde de l’Isard"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Killian O\u2019Brien had an eye-opening experience at Ronde de l\u2019Isard; crashing into a team car at 70kmph \u2013 hence the bloody knee \u2013 racing up big mountains for the first time and getting his elbows out in the constant battle for position (Photo: Fabien Lenfant)<\/p>\n

Winner of the elite National Hill Climb Championships, a podium finisher at the Junior Tour of Wales<\/strong><\/a> and strong performer in Italy, with two wins there, Killian O\u2019Brien was a flyweight climber as a junior. He did enough to display his obvious talents, even though big climbs were few and far between in the races available to him.<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old from Ballinteer, south Dublin, is now in his first year as an U23 and riding for Mexican UCI Continental team<\/strong><\/a> Petrolike. After a big winter training in Spain<\/strong><\/a>, his early season was derailed by a knee injury. Now recovered, he stepped into top tier U23 international stage racing for the first time at Ronde de l\u2019Isard\u00a0(2.2U) last week.<\/p>\n

It was the first time he raced up big mountains, and where the fight for position was intense. The event, featuring most of the best U23 teams in Europe, was a baptism of fire, especially as it was O\u2019Brien\u2019s first U23 stage race. So how did it go, and how does this level compare to racing in Ireland?<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the climbs, it\u2019s just a different beast all together. I\u2019ve never really had to race up a 40-minute climb before,\u201d he said, adding at some of the hardest moments, it was his compatriot Liam O\u2019Brien (Lidl Trek Future Racing) putting everyone in the hurt locker.<\/p>\n

\"\"Killian O\u2019Brien finishes 3rd in the junior race at the National Road Championships riding for Veleka Team in 2024, when he won two races in Italy and claimed gold at the senior National Hill Climb Championships (Photo: Sean Rowe) <\/p>\n

Though he said he felt at his best on Sunday\u2019s final stage \u2013 with the 14.7km cat 1 climb of Col de la Core crested 118km into the 150km course \u2013 events conspired against him. He crashed in a small town, as the roads narrowed before the climb, and then hit the deck for a second time as he was getting back on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in the cavalcade, ripping it back on the bumper of the team car and a car in front just hit the brakes for a speed bump,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. \u201cI went through the back of the team car at about 70k an hour. So I went down really hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though he got back onto his bike for a second time, and regained the peloton, his right knee was badly bashed up and bleeding heavily, with other cuts and bruises on his right said. <\/p>\n

When the riders reached the climb, O\u2019Brien said his knee wouldn\u2019t cooperate with the effort required. So he was forced to pull the pin. He rode to the summit at his own pace and was later picked up by a group in the valley and rode in with them. It was frustrating as he really wanted to see how he would climb on the last day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThroughout the week my resting heart rate was going up all the time,\u201d he said of the fatigue building. \u201cBut on Sunday morning it was back down to normal, I felt great and I thought I still had a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"O\u2019Brien wins Gp Madonna Delle Grazie in Italy last year, where he stepped into European road racing for the first time<\/p>\n

He said stage 2 \u2013 some 132km from Luz-Saint-Sauveur to Cauterets with 3,000m of climbing \u2013 was probably his best performance. The route included a late climb, a cat 2 crested 4km from the finish. He climbed in the front group, of about 30 riders from 135 starters. <\/p>\n

At the last, as the terrain evened off just before the finish, a rider ahead of him the wheel go. That was just as Liam O\u2019Brien was attacking off the front in pursuit of stage winner, and eventual GC winner, Jarno Widar (Lotto Development). <\/p>\n

That pressure applied by Liam O\u2019Brien \u2013 who was eventually 2nd overall<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 ramped up the pace and meant Killian O\u2019Brien couldn\u2019t close back to the group. <\/p>\n

\u201cLiam attacked as that gap opened on me, and he was just so strong I couldn\u2019t close it,\u201d said Killian O\u2019Brien. <\/p>\n

\u201cI finished maybe 30 seconds down on the front group (in 26th) and I was happy enough with that. Even though it would have been nice to have been in the group, I\u2019d had the legs to hold them over the climb.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall, what were his impressions of his first experience of this kind of racing, in one of the hardest U23 stage races in Europe?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bunch positioning was a bit of a shock, I\u2019ve never had to do that in my life,\u201d he said of having to work just to hold position, with moving even more testing. \u201cIn Ireland, I\u2019m used to 30 or 40 guys (in a bunch). And if you want to get to the front, you just move up, it\u2019s easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

In France last week he said positioning was very challenging, especially on the opening stages, though he found he quickly learned to cope.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the last two stages I was pretty comfortable moving up around the middle, not having to send it up the outside when there was a gap,\u201d he said. \u201cI was able to hold position in the top 30 going into the climbs pretty consistently, so that was okay. <\/p>\n

\u201cOn Sunday I was a bit unlucky. I was in a good position and I crashed. But I still had the position in the bunch. And then on the climbs\u2026 I didn\u2019t feel I was completely out of place. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere our obviously some guys who are just better at the moment, and that\u2019s just the way It Is. They have 10-15 watts on what I have. And when you accumulate that over the whole day, it just means on the last climb I\u2019m on my limit and they can still attack. But for my first proper stage race, and my first stage race of the year, I think I\u2019m pretty happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien\u2019s team is riding the upcoming Giro Next Gen, though he is not sure if he will line out at that race. In terms of stage races to come, he is provisionally down to start Giro Ciclistico della Valle d\u2019Aosta-Mont Blanc (2.2U) in July, Volta a Portugal em Bicicleta (2.1) in August and Tour de Langkawi (2.Pro) in October.<\/p>\n

He appears especially looking forward to Valle d\u2019Aosta-Mont Blanc, which should prove a chance to gauge his progress on climbs compared to Ronde de l\u2019Isard.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s probably the biggest goal from me now,\u201d he said of the mountainous five-stage race in Italy, which was won by Ireland\u2019s Darren Rafferty two years ago. \u201cI\u2019ll probably be back to my peak form and hopefully that will suit me, with the big climbs. <\/p>\n

\u201cSince the injury, I\u2019ve had the last two or three months of training. And every week I\u2019m getting better. Hopefully that continues. And at Valle d\u2019Aosta, hopefully I\u2019ll be closer to the front, maybe in the top 20-15 on the climbs instead of the top 30.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Killian O\u2019Brien had an eye-opening experience at Ronde de l\u2019Isard; crashing into a team car at 70kmph \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3843],"tags":[728,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-139410","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114586956845184930","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}