Eddie Dunbar vs former Junior stars

mistermatthew

Just wondering does anyone more knowledgeable know how his junopr career compare to previous junior stars we've had like Scanlon, Lavery etc. Is he a genuine prospect or is the standard poor at the moment. Watching Junior Tour of Ireland he looks a class act, even racing against older guys.

morana

mistermatthew wrote: »

Just wondering does anyone more knowledgeable know how his junopr career compare to previous junior stars we've had like Scanlon, Lavery etc. Is he a genuine prospect or is the standard poor at the moment. Watching Junior Tour of Ireland he looks a class act, even racing against older guys.

very genuine prospect!!! he is probably the best since Scanlon. I am not sure if he is as good as scanlon was but he is certainly good.

mistermatthew

morana wrote: »

very genuine prospect!!! he is probably the best since Scanlon. I am not sure if he is as good as scanlon was but he is certainly good.

Thats high praise, a better time for a junior to make the step up now than when scanlon did. Winning clean is possible now

wav1

morana wrote: »

very genuine prospect!!! he is probably the best since Scanlon. I am not sure if he is as good as scanlon was but he is certainly good.

I agree.I think he's special.Very difficult to guage against other eras,but stuff he does is probably at least on a par with what others did at the same time.We had also a ver special junior team at the worlds in 2002 in Zolder,Paudi,Nico Roche,Harwick.With a bit of luck on the day something could have come off.
Wouldnt say at all that the category is weak as i think by concensus,we had a really good crop last yr and some of those are now 2nd years.Foley has already made a good start to his senior career,and as the season evolves i fully expect a good few more of the 1st yr seniors to make their mark.
Incidently Downey who rode the worlds last yr is also now a 2nd yr junior and i reckon theres not a lot between him and Dunbar.First two names on the worlds team sheet,even at this stage of the yr.O'Brien,Shanahan,and Ryan very strong also.

12 sprocket

It certainly looks as if he has the extra required to be very very good. And seems to be a step above the rest of the lads. His time trial at the national champs was very impressive. Hopefully he will go on to keep enjoying what he is doing and achieve his full potential whatever that will be.

Colonialboy

I think Dunbar is overdoing it and is in danger of goign the same way as many other great juniors we had
He finished second in The Shay Elliot on Sat and 2nd again on Sunday in Kerry to Paidi O'Brien.
Great results in isolation, but taken in context I think its too much for a Junior (early in the season, in the National squad etc) to be doing if he wants longevity and a career.

fixie fox

Colonialboy wrote: »

I think Dunbar is overdoing it and is in danger of goign the same way as many other great juniors we had
He finished second in The Shay Elliot on Sat and 2nd again on Sunday in Kerry to Paidi O'Brien.
Great results in isolation, but taken in context I think its too much for a Junior (early in the season, in the National squad etc) to be doing if he wants longevity and a career.

'Early in the season'? For the likes of Dunbar early season would be Sept to Jan/Feb. And those results are not 'in isolation' -e.g. Last year he rode away solo from Junior Tour and put t
2 mins. into them, etc etc. The alternative is for him to continue doing solo TTs at Cat3 - a guy of his class riding in the same race as me is ridiculous.

on_the_nickel

Bit unfair to be discussing a 17 year old kid on an open forum, no?

Lumen

on_the_nickel wrote: »

Bit unfair to be discussing a 17 year old kid on an open forum, no?

Tom Daley competed in the Olympics at 13 years old, and this is not exactly "KPMG girl" territory.

Colonialboy

fixie fox wrote: »

'Early in the season'? For the likes of Dunbar early season would be Sept to Jan/Feb. And those results are not 'in isolation' -e.g. Last year he rode away solo from Junior Tour and put t
2 mins. into them, etc etc. The alternative is for him to continue doing solo TTs at Cat3 - a guy of his class riding in the same race as me is ridiculous.

you managed to miss both my points... but here I will try again

Yes its relatively early in the season.. the racing season.

In Isolation (Im not implying the results came out of the blue, we all know he has talent) ... I mean in terms of if you ignore the fact he is a junior and just said a bloke finishing 2nd in two races over 2 days, youd say well done but
put it in the context of him being a junior and with commitments for the National junior squad etc .... I think its too much too young...

fixie fox

on_the_nickel wrote: »

Bit unfair to be discussing a 17 year old kid on an open forum, no?

I think you are probably right.

Beasty

on_the_nickel wrote: »

Bit unfair to be discussing a 17 year old kid on an open forum, no?

If you have a problem report posts and let the mods deal with it

In terms of the specifics here, it's generally fine to comment on good underage cyclists providing it is done in a positive manner. Coming on here to suggest what a 17 year old may be doing wrong is not on. I am sure he has coaches who can help improve his cycling, and negative comments here are not going to help anyone

Thanks

Beasty

pprendeville

I find it terribly exciting to be reading reports on Stickybottle about him. Great prospect for the future and it will spur on lots of both young and old cyclists, I'm sure, to train hard and possibly go on to bigger and better things. Great role model he seems to be for any young fella as well with what seems like a very level head and maturity beyond his years going by his interviews.

Michael O'Loughlin, Dylan Foley, Sean Hahessy, Stephen Shanahan and a few more all seem to be great prospects so the future for Irish cycling looks bright. Let's hope they continue to be looked after well which I think they are now. Limiting them to A3 most of the time is a good thing with the odd race with the big boys probably a necessity in fairness. Most of the juniors have the leaving coming up so now is the time to get upgrade points.

Junior

At that age group it's hard to compare with other Juniors of past years, the system is now different on how they race - what races they do etc. The only thing you can say with certainty is that Eddie is the #1 Junior rider in the country at the moment, and that can change at any given moment - with a drop in interest, an injury, or the Irish predisposition to discover drink and women at around 18 as well.

It genuinely pains me that the crop of Junior riders is so so small in numbers, I would really like to see the numbers returning to that level of the sport more so than A4 divisions. I do hope that the development of riders doesn't devolve to teams like NPRT going forward - not because there's anything wrong with them - I think they are doing a great job, but I do think CI needs to step up with it's Junior Squad and an U23 Team and make them the team young riders want to ride for.

Ken1975

Having the Juniors race in the A3 races is not the standard the Juniors need to be racing at when you factor in that CI select them for continental races throughout the year and then the Worlds.
It is a fine balance, especially at 17-18 years old, to get the correct combination of quality racing and distance that will not only suffice but actually allow them to contend races in Europe.

Too much of the A3 racing wont cut the mustard for them and we cant expect the Juniors to be competing at internation level if they onyl do A3 races.
Too much racing at A1/A2 level could harm pyhsical developement and even diminsh over time their mental resilliance for racing beyond 120km.

I do believe some Juniors, not all Juniors, should be competing in SOME A1/A2 races during the season, but certainly not week in week out. Again, I think that CI have a duty to monitor and step in where necessary to prevent our crop of Top Juniors from doing too much too soon.

During my time as a 2nd year Junior, I think I competed in about 8-10 senior races throughout the entire season (March to September), most were under 100km but we did do the Tour of Wales in 1994 with with Seniors and some UK Pros, that was interesting and distances each day were up over the 140km for the 3 day event...and it was Faaaaaaaast.

If there is even a hint of a weak spot for the drink, arse, girls, feck syndrome then pushing Juniors, or for that matter condoning them to compete too hard too early could lead to the "Irish predisposition to discover drink and women".
Amen Father Jack.

You can be as grounded and swtiched on as you want but 18-19 is a vital age for any sports person. Its the time when most get thier heads turned.