Is the first time you have had support from the Dave Rayner Fund?
Yes, this is the first year I have received support for the Dave Rayner Fund and I am very grateful to be given such great support.
What is your cycling history ?
I started cycling about 5 years ago. My whole family have all a massive interest in the sport and most of them including my Dad, Uncle and both my Grandfathers all represented Ireland and raced at a very high level with appearances in the Commonwealth Games and the Olympics. With this family background in the cycling I simply grew up around the sport and learned to love it as much as they do. So in my head from I was no age, all I wanted to be was a pro cyclist. Since I stated cycling I spent my first 2 years with my local cycling club (Banbridge CC) and after that I rode for another 2 years with the Nicolas Roche Performance Team. Over the four years I managed to get some good results and although suffered a lot of injury and sickness I have had numerous spells abroad over the 4 years with Irish And Ulster teams and got to see for myself how good the standard of racing was abroad. I knew that’s where I needed to be if I wanted to make anything of this so I as soon as I hit the U23 category the opportunity came up so I certainly wasn’t going to turn it down.
What team are you joining in 2015? Tell us a bit about your team.
I am joining the French DN2 team Amicale Cycliste Bisontine for the 2015 season.
The team are based in Besancon, France. They are a very well known team throughout France and Jean de Gribaldy who was a Pro rider in the 40’s & 50’s who went on to be a DS for a number of Pro teams in the 70’s & 80’s formed the team.
Do they have they a website we can link to?
www.amicalecyclistebisontine.fr
What is your race programme looking like?
It’s looking like all of my race calendar will be in France and will most likely be based around the DN2 and French Elite races.
Are you going on a training camp with the team?
Yes we have a training camp in the south of France towards the end of February.
When are you heading out to Europe/USA?
I head out to Besancon in the middle of February to join the team.
Twitter handle and any blogs or website links:
Twitter; @matthew_teggart