Talkingshop: Jonny McEvoy (NetApp-Endura)

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Winner of the Tour DoonHame last year for Endura Racing, we talk to one of four Brits in the NetApp-Endura team, Jonathan McEvoy

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Racing with the Endura Racing team last year, Johnny came out of 2012 with some great podiums that saw him with 50 UCI points to take to his new ProConti team. His 2013 season started with a bang at the British Madison Championships where he was third with former Madison champion Russell Downing who is another of the four Brits in the NetApp-Endura team.

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“That was good for only my second ever Madison race” Johnny explained afterwards as he warmed down on the rollers. “The first one was about four years ago and once I got the hang of it today, I wasn’t too bad out there. It worked out good for us having a bit of strength from the road training we have done. We weren’t that zippy in the sprints but third isn’t bad for the first race of the year in the new colours!”

As a former GB Academy rider, racing the track is not new to the St Helens rider but it’s the road where he wants to make a splash in 2013. Jonny has already done one team camp and has another coming up next week before heading to the other side of the World with fellow young Brit, Scott Thwaites.

Their 2013 road season starts with the UCI 2.1 stage race, Tour de San Luis, in Argentina starting on January 21st and to prepare Johnny has admitted he’s been putting in the hours both in the training camp and at home. Prior to the last camp, Jonny took himself off to Girona for a camp there for some warm weather miles but admits that the wet winter hasn’t stopped him getting in the miles back home around St Helens either.

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Last year it was a British classic, the Perfs Pedal for Jonny pictured following Yanto Barker. This year its the Belgian classics…. what a difference a year makes!

“The temperatures have not been that bad so even if it rains, you can still get four or five hours in. It feels good to be on a team at this level. Just to see your programme you are doing, all the races that are on TV that I’ve watched over the years and that gives you plenty of motivation to train and do things right. It’s exciting to go from the Academy to Conti and now ProConti.”

“The team is a well organised outfit and I have my programme up until the end of April and I just want to do the best races I can.”

Johnny explained how it’s his dream to ride a Grand Tour and his hopes of doing that were dashed when the team were denied a wildcard in the Tour of Italy yesterday. For now though, Johnny says his programme is likely to include Belgian classics Het Volk (now called Omloop Het Nieuwsblad) and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne and finish with the Tour of Turkey at the end of April. “The races are all brilliant so it’s going to be a great start to the season” he says.

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Johnny McEvoy on the front of the peloton helping Endura Racing protect the race lead of Jon Locke in the 2012 Tour of Britain

It’s quite a contrast for Johnny who’s first ‘classic’ in 2012 was the British race, the Perfs Pedal. “It will be a lot further and a lot harder this year I expect but I have been training well so hopefully I can do alright.”

Asked what’s the best thing about racing at ProConti level he cheekily replied “you get a bus!” By that he means a comfy seat in a motorhome rather than a portable chair in a car park but he then adds “it’s the races you get to do and the atmosphere around the team. The way everything is sorted for you and then it’s down to you to get on the bike and do it.”

Asked if having four Brits with him on the mainly German team is a big help, Johnny replied “it definitely helps having them with me. Russ (Russell Downing) has a lot of experience riding a Grand Tour with Sky and then me, Scott (Thwaites) and Erik (Rowsell) are all similar ages so we’re there to learn but also to do well and get stuck in.”

It wasn’t that many years ago that Johnny would have been a contender at the British Cyclo-Cross Championships which are next weekend but he now has bigger fish to fry on the road and it is quite surreal to know that last year he was racing the British Classics and now this year will be racing with quite simply the best riders in the world.

Good luck to Johnny in 2013 and whilst we’ll miss not having him racing here in Britain, we’ll also watch with interest to see how he gets on in the ‘proper’ classics!

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 Jonny McEvoy slings NetApp-Endura teammate Russell Downing into the race for the British Madison title.

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