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After finding his feet last season on the Australian National Road Series, Adam Phelan’s decision to join up with the Continental Drapac Cycling Team has been a real ‘eye opener’. The team, which has been integral in helping talents like 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Mitch Docker and 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Darren Lapthorne develop over the ye🌱ars, have thrown Phelan in to the deep end with a racing programme on three different continents, against some of the world’s best riders.

A proꦿlogue victory in the Tour of Taiwan earlier in the year was an encouraging start to his time with the team, but the real step-up for the 20-year-old was travelling to Europe where ⛦he admits he was at least at first, a little ‘star struck’.

"Going there was a massive learning curve. These are the guys you’ve been watching race the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tour de France and other big races," said Phelan. "But you slowly real⛦ise that they’re just ‘other bike riders’, albeit really good ‘other bike rider🔜s’, and that you can compete with them.

"Then to race with 200 European professionals in 1.1 races is a big jump," he continued. "It’s really im𝄹portant though. You figure out how to best conserve your energy during a big race; and I’ve been able to do several races like that this🥀 year, where I’ve just been able to do just grow and learn."

Having recently returned to Australia, Phelan has translated much of his experience overseas into some pretty impressive results. He was 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:fourth overall in 🎐the Tour of the Murra🦹y River, and nearly broke Genesys’ 2011 stranglehold on Australian stage races at the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Goulburn Sydney Classic where he was narrowly beaten to the overall win by just a few🐠 hundredths of a second.

Jayco Herald Sun Tour

For Phelan however, the best is hopefully still to come. 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:The Jayco Herald Sun Tour, Austral💮ia’s biggest stage race outside the Tour Down Under, is just around the corner and having previewed the course over the past week Phelan believe🦩s with a bit of luck he can make an impact in the race, and even if he doesn’t, someone in the team will.

"The [Jayco Herald] Sun Tour is easily the biggest race for 💃me and probably for the whole team," said Phelan. "Ever since I was a junior I’ve always watched the [Jayco✤ Herald] Sun Tour, and always wanted to do it.

"We’ll have a really strong team going into the race. We’ll have 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Lachlan Norris, who’s just returned from a stagiaire role with HTC-Highroad and h🎐e’s going really well – then we’ve also got Tom Palmer, coming off the under 23 worlds, and of course we’ve also got [for😼mer Australian champion] Darren Lapthorne. So we have plenty of options."

While acknowledging that Norris would likely be the team’s main hope for a high overall placing, Phelan added that the unpredictability of th🔥e Herald Sun Tour meant that it would be unwise to try and bank too much on any one rider.

"Apart from the sprint days where we’ll work for Tom [Palmer], it’s ha𝓀rd to gauge how the rest of the race will go," said Phelan. "Any of us could be up there; it’ll just depend on how it plays out. Personally, I’ll be trying to just look for opportunities in the race, breakaways and escapes. Hopefully I can have a really good stage and get a placing. It’s going t🍰o be a really high level everyday but if I can get in the right move hopefully I can do something."

A result at Jayco Herald Sun Tour would obviously be nice, but Phelan is realistic. If things don’t work out, he&🐭rsquo;s still young and undoubtedly has some big years ahead of him, and with guys like Docker forging a road to the professional level ahead of⭕ him, Phelan does at least have a path to follow.

"Guys like Mitch, who managed to fini꧂sh his whole degree, and then go onto to Skil-Shimano, and now GreenEdge are really good examples for me. He’s definitely someone I can aspire to, and shows that there is a route to the upper levels of the sport."

The Jayco Herald Sun Tour starts on O🔴ctober 12 in Whittlesea.