Conor Prendergast may have taken the stage victory and yellow jersey at the Gorey Three Day in Co Wexford today, but the 17-year-old first-year junior has also surely moved himself into the reckoning for Irish team selection. The Galway Bay CC teenager put in a text book effort today to come away with the spoils.
He waited in the peloton until a two-man breakaway showed much more resilience than expected to pull clear and stay away. With the gap to the two leaders at about 20 seconds, Prendergast jumped across on his own with about 20km to go. After catching the two leaders he stayed with them for a while before riding clear solo and powering all the way to the line.
As anyone who has ever ridden the Gorey will attest, getting clear from the charging bunch in Wexford over the Easter Bank Holiday is never easy. Doing it alone to win is very rare. And yet Prendergast made it look easy. It was also part of his plan, he told stickybottle, adding the guidance of coach Daire Feeley - with a mix of big miles and higher intensity - during the winter had really brought him on.
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"One of my aims was to get the yellow jersey and get a few stage wins," he said. "But it was a really fast race on the main roads we were doing 60 and 70 kilometers per hour at times."
In the final phase of the stage today, four men made the running. Drew McKinley (Newry Wheelers) and Matthew Hoare (Cycling Leinster) made the move first, getting clear before Prendergast so impressively got across. Then Mark McKinley (Newry Wheelers) followed, making it four up front.
While Drew McKinley would slip back before the stage was done, Prendergast went forward; getting clear of Mark McKinley and Hoare with about 6km to go. By the finish, Prendergast had 21 seconds on the two chasers; McKinley finishing 2nd and Hoare placing 3rd. The front of the peloton, which broke up a little on the incline to the finish, was 41 seconds back, with gaps of one and two seconds through the field after that.
"I didn't think the breakaway would stick because I could see the bunch seemed to be closing the gap," Prendergast said of McKinley and Hoare surviving out front, though not completely riding away. "But then I just went up to the front and drilled it."
Once the catch was made, the breakaway worked away until Prendergast shook of his fellow escapees and was solo at the front of the race.
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"I eventually rode the other two guys off the wheel once we got to the roundabout near Gorey," he said. "And then I just put the head down from there and the gap extended on the chase group and the bunch."
Tomorrow Prendergast starts stage 2 in yellow, but faces 70km with five categorised climbs in the morning stage followed by a 2.4km TT in the afternoon. But, for now, Prendergast is focused on stage 2.
"It's very hilly, there's 1,100 meters of climbing in 70 kilometers. I think I'll do well I like the climbs," he said.
Having just turned 17 years two weeks ago, Claregalway's Prendergast is a Leaving Cert student in Yeats College and worked hard over the winter, under coach Daire Feeley, with a view to growing his engine for his first season as a junior.
"I did a lot of volume, there was weeks when I was doing 22 or 23 hours," he said of hitting those hours during some weeks. "In December I really focused on getting a lot of volume done. And once January came around the volume dropped and I started doing a lot of intensity."
He said he had been working with Feeley for about three years - "he knows all his stuff and he's very experienced" - and felt a forced break of about six weeks last year had probably stood him in good stead for this season. His win today - particularly the manner of it - and his victory at the Castlebar GP two weeks ago, again via a solo effort, are proof he has taken a big step forward since his final U16 races last year.
"I was getting top fives and a win here and there," he said of his U16 years. "But then I got injured for six weeks and I had to take time out right before the nationals. I didn't take a break once the season ended because of that. I just went straight into winter training and I think that gave me a big advantage as well."
While defending the yellow jersey - and maybe even winning a second stage - was his main concern now, he also plans to ride the Galway Classic, promoted by his club Galway Bay CC, next weekend. The Kanturk Three Day is on the horizon too, and he hopes to ride, and do well in, both the National Road Championships and the Junior Tour of Ireland.
While he is not getting carried away, asked if had designs on being selected to represent Ireland as a junior at some point, he replied: "Oh yeah, I'd love to be on that team."
