Donegal's Jamie Meehan set to experience racing on pro cycling team Cofidis

Mountcharles cyclist Jamie Meehan has taken a huge step forward in his cycling career, having secured a stagiaire with the Cofidis World Tour Team.

The Irish U23 champion told Donegal Live what it means to him to step up from his team, AVC Aix Provence Dole, to a World Tour team. 

“It is quite exciting to get the opportunity and I am looking forward to it,” he said. “I am going from my team which would be an amateur team, a development team, to a World Tour team which is the highest level of pro cycling.

“Being a stagiaire is like an internship. I will be there until the end of the year. They take you in and you get to race a few races with them. 

“It is about getting to show them what you can do and you get to learn a lot about how the pro teams work. You are going in and seeing what it is like to race in one of the top set-ups.”

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Jamie is one of three riders to have been awarded a stagiaire by Cofidis. The others are 24-year-old Frenchman Leandre Huck (VC Rouen), and Italian Tommaso Dati, 23, who has been with the Biesse-Carrera-Premac this year. 

Jamie is embracing this opportunity, and while it doesn’t guarantee an offer of a place on the team, it brings him ever closer to his goal of securing a pro team contract.

The Mountcharles man says there was no pivotal moment in his younger years that set the wheels in motion for a career in cycling.

“To be honest, I don’t really know how I got started,” he said. “I can’t really put my finger on it. 

“I remember wanting to get a racing bike and go out with a local club. I joined Donegal Bay Cycling Club and went out on the youth spins and from there I did the Ras an Earagail youth tour which is quite a big race.

"Pat Cunningham from Glenties saw me ride in the race. He turned to the person next to him and said my seat was far too high and I was not in a good position.

“He didn’t realise that the person he said it to was my Mum. She said, ‘We don’t really know anything about cycling’ and Pat said to bring me down to Glenties. He helped me with the setup of the bike and with racing.”

Jamie soon began to notice an improvement.

“I wasn’t one of those people who was a good rider from when I was a kid, but through him I got better every year. I was cycling with Tir Chonaill GAP Cycling Club and they taught me a lot.

“Then I got gold in the junior nationals with VC Glendale. I learned a lot there too, and went on to join the Irish road racing team Spellman where I got more experience and talked to a lot more people.

“I decided then that I wanted to commit to giving cycling a go for a year after I did my Leaving Cert. I got myself out to Spain for the following year.”

But it wasn’t all plain sailing, and Jamie had to overcome a lot of doubts.

“It was my first taste of racing at the highest level,” he said. “I got my ass kicked every race. The enjoyment went out of it.

Jamie came back to Ireland for a race, and he really enjoyed it, largely because he was racing with friends. But on his return to Spain, he again found it difficult to settle into the sport.

“I thought then about maybe giving it up and coming back home and going to college,” he said. 

“I came home for the National Championships and hoped to just finish the race and come sixth or seventh. But I won the U23 so that changed everything. It meant I could wear the National Championship jersey. 

“We are all quite proud of where we are from so the chance to get to wear that Irish Championship jersey, I had to grab it with both hands and race abroad.”

Over time, Jamie got to know people and he began enjoying the sport again. 

“Last year I joined a French team and made lots of friends racing in France,” he said. “I was really enjoying it, and had a good year last year but didn’t manage to pull out any big result in terms of moving on to a pro team. 

“My manager was leaving the team and he recommended a move to where I am now. There is a new French level between amateur and pro and we are at that level, and so we get to do some big races. I got to race against some World Tour teams at the beginning of the year.

“I picked up some knee problems and I fractured my hand but I recovered.”

Jamie has had a good year this year, and the move to Cofidis is a big boost.

“I am glad to get an opportunity to show them not just what I can do but what kind of person I am,” he said. “They use the stagiaires to fill out the races, and I am looking forward to learning as much as I can.”

Known in the cycling world as a strong climber, Jamie has raced some of the most iconic routes in the sport. But his favourite lies close to home. 

“I love to cycle out to Glengesh, do the climb, then go down into Carrick and back to Mountcharles, cycle along the shore and finish with the hill home,” he said. “That is my absolute favourite spin.”

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