Erin
Creighton will line out at Gent Wevelgem this weekend on the latest step of her
cycling journey and having already emerged as an exciting prospect for Ireland.
The
second-year junior stood out last year when she went shoulder to shoulder with
the best of our elite riders on home roads and did more than hold her own. Then
aged 17 years, her 3rd place in the opening round of the Cycling Ireland
National Road Series in Limerick last June marked her out as one to watch.
More
recently, she also claimed 3rd in the elite race at the Des Hanlon in Carlow
last weekend, also a National Road Series event, behind elite internationals
Caoimhe O’Brien and Mia Griffin. And she has already taken an elite road win
this season; at the John Haldane Memorial in Newry the weekend before last.
While
this Sunday will mark her UCI Junior Nations Cup debut, Creighton has already
gained experience on the international scene. The 18-year-old from Antrim rode
for Ireland at the European Youth Olympics in Baku, Azerbaijan, as an U16 three
years ago.
Last
year she was selected onto the Irish junior team for the European Track Championships
in the Netherlands; riding team pursuit, individual pursuit, madison and points
race.
Towards
the end of the 2021 campaign she was also picked for Ireland to ride the junior
women’s road race at the World Championships in Belgium.
“Obviously
the first big road race I did was the Worlds last year but unfortunately I had
Covid two weeks before it so I really wasn’t on form for it,” she said. “So
this weekend will be the first chance I get to really test myself against a
world standard while I’m on form. I think it’s going to be a bit of a shock
though because racing in Ireland is totally different. But I’m looking forward
to it.
“I
watched (Gent Wevelgem) on TV last year and then obviously I’ve been reading up
on it recently, once I found out I was going. The classics are always great fun
to watch and as a family we always watch them,” she said, adding her family
were
“so excited for me… they’re really supportive”.
As
well as already having represented Ireland on road and track, Creighton is a
former U14 national mountain bike champion and those skills will hopefully help
her on the cobbles on Sunday.
While
no junior women’s Ireland team, or men’s U23 team, has been sent by Cycling
Ireland to Gent Wevelgem, Creighton will line out on Sunday alongside Irish
junior road race champion Aoife O’Brien.
They
will be part of a Torelli-Cayman Islands-Scimitar line-up, which is O’Brien’s
team for this year. When O’Brien learned there was a space to be filled on the
team for Gent Wevelgem she rang Creighton and encouraged her to grab the
chance, which she did.
Speaking
to stickybottle after having just arrived in Belgium, Creighton said she was
hopeful her experience of being on national teams last year would help her cope
with what she knows will be a big step up this weekend.
“It’s
that experience of being away in a team setting and not having your family
there to support you, and having to be self-sufficient,” she said of the experiences
mopped up in 2021 that may help her now. “And I think (you have to adjust to) the
atmosphere as well. I mean, it’s just huge over here compared to Ireland. And
it’s really class to be part of that, I can’t wait. And hopefully this summer
I’ll get over and do a bit more racing as well.”
The
junior women’s Gent Wevelgem is some 77.5km, starting and finishing in Boezinge.
Creighton and O’Brien will be competing against some of the strongest national
teams in the sport.
“My
main goal is to really just to stay in the group,” Creighton said. “I’ve
obviously never experienced racing like this before and racing on cobbles and
in a massive group. So my main aim is to stay in the group.”
Looking
a little further ahead, she said her A Levels will be completed by mid June,
after which she can really focus on her cycling. Her first big goal is to
target national selection for the Europeans; road and track.
“The
European Track Championships last year were crazy,” she said. “That was the
first major competition I had ever been to and it was also my first time on an
indoor velodrome. So it was a bit of a shock. And the first time I’d ridden a
track bike was only last May. But it was a class experience. I’d love to do
more track but that is obviously hard because we don’t have a velodrome in
Ireland.”
