Conor Hennebry has said he was delighted to win the Cycling Ireland National Road Series 2019; emulating Seán Lacey in defending the title something he took great pride in.
Lacey has been absent from racing over the past year after a
bad training crash.
But Hennebry said the Kerryman and long-time Irish
international had been a big influence on his development.
Taking back-to-back series wins, as Lacey did in 2016 and
2017, was something Hennebry was aiming for from the drop of the flag this
year.
“It was a big goal of mine coming into this year. Seán defended his title two years in a row and it shows that you can be consistent throughout the whole year,” said Hennebry.
However, while Lacey was a former team mate and someone
Hennebry had looked to when trying to improve in his early years, it wasn’t all
plain sailing.
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“At the start, I wasn't Seán's biggest fan,” Hennebry said of their first encounters when he began racing and Lacey was already one of Ireland’s most prolific riders.
“I got myself into a break and I wasn't
able to ride through,” explained Hennebry of getting up the road with Lacey.
“He gave me a strict talking to and I
started working and got dropped soon after that.
“But I just didn't know at that time; I
thought he was very cold but as the time went on we started to get on.
“He was such a strong rider; he always made
the break and was the patron in the Irish peloton.
“His word was law when I started racing.
When I joined Aquablue in 2016 we became good friends.
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“We traveled to races together and we always worked well together. Seán would always go out of his way to help people out.
“He’s seriously missed at races and around
Irish cycling since he hasn’t been racing,” said Hennebry.
He added Lacey was at the Cork GP yesterday
and was a popular addition to the proceedings.
Hennebry wrapped up the 2019 National
Series title at that event, which was promoted by his own Dan
Morrissey-MIG-Pactimo team.
In its previous guise the team was the Aqua Blue Sport Academy; the outfit that Hennebry and Lacey raced alongside in and with which Lacey took the last of his two series wins.
Seán Lacey also won the old Irish Classic League; the season-long promotion that has been replaced by the National Road Series in recent years.
Yesterday was an unusual one for Hennebry
in that he did not feature at the pointy end of the racing.
Instead, as he was vying for the series win
he and team mate James Curry were involved in a tactical marking game; Darnell
Moore of Caldwell Cycles being the dangerman for them.
In the end all three – Hennebry, Moore and
Curry – missed the day’s successful breakaway.
The race was won by Moore’s team mate Angus
Fyffe from James Davenport (Strata 3-VeloRevolution).
“It was a strange race,” confirmed Hennebry of racing cagey,
unlike his usual style of riding from the front.
“It was quite negative tactics as there were a couple of
guys like Darnell Moore who were close to me on points coming into the race.
“I was really only watching a few guys I knew were close to
me in the overall series.”
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