Cycling Reports

MORGAN FOX 

(Feb 18) This time last year, Morgan Fox became the first Irish professional cyclist since the retirement of former greats Kelly, Roche, Earley and Kimmage. Having signed with the second division Tonnisteiner team in Belgium, Fox could begin to look forward to a long and distinguished career in the paid ranks, or so it had seemed. Now, one year later the young Athlone man finds himself back home and back in the amateur ranks once more. So what went wrong?

Having ridden every major classic at the start of the year including Het Volk, Liege-Bastonge-Liege and Fleche-Wallone, Fox was beginning to become accustomed to the extra racing, training and travelling a pro's life entails. "I was absolutely gobsmacked by the team's racing program" says the former national champion, "Even though they were a second division team , they rode every major race. At one stage, I did Ghent-Wevelgem on a Sunday, Veenendaal-Veenendaal on Wednesday, Fleche - Wallone on Thursday and Liege-Bastogne-Liege on the following Sunday. They were the four biggest races in the world that week and I was riding all of them! Tonnisteiner were just pushing, pushing, pushing and I thought it was great, until I started to get knackered!"

For those of you folowing his race diary on irishcycling.com you will have noticed there was a sudden end to his writings, halfway through the season. The reason for this is simple; By the end of May, Fox's season and pro career, for the moment, was over - although he didn't know it at the time.

The constant training and travelling along with a densley packed racing program eventually took their toll on the neo pro. "I started getting recurring injuries." Fox says "It was so regular it was uncanny. At the end of my training cycles, in the easy wek , I'd start to get sick or injured. At a blood control in the Tour of Asturias, my hamatocrit was only 36. I knew myself it should be around 44/45. We went from there to Henninger Turm in Germany and then to Japan. I had 26 days racing in the month of May. After Japan, I couldn't walk, couldn't get up the stairs!"

Fox was eventually diagnosed with Glandular Fever. He'd had it from the start of the season! His season was over, but he was reassured by team manager Gerard Bulens that there would be a place on the 2001 squad. after all if he could ride this well with glandular fever, what would he be like when he was fully fit? After a lot of messing around and unanswered faxes, Fox was eventually told there would be no place on the team this year. It was now the 15th of October and almost every team had it's full quota of riders. "I was gutted and very bitter about it." says Fox "It's not in my nature to be bitter, but the way Tonnisteiner treated me really got up my nose."

This year sees the Athlone man make a fresh start. He has already left Ireland for his new club in France as part of the Team Ireland initiative and hopes to earn enough UCI points this year to regain a pro contract for 2002. "I want to try and get back pro. I think if you have 100 UCI points, no team will turn you down. It sounds a lot, but if you do it properly, aim for the smaller races, it's possible. With the Ras on the UCI calendar this year, that will be a big aim."

You can read more on Morgan Fox in this months issue of Procycling magazine.