Darragh O’Mahony has said he was panicked by a last lap crash in the National Road Race Championships on Sunday in Derry but delighted to go on and win the U23 title.
The CC Nogent-sur-Oise rider was initially in what proved
to be the winning breakaway but said he was simply unable to stay there.
And when he went back to what remained of the peloton he
quickly refocused on the U23 race as he knew that title was still on the line.
“The winning move went the first time up Chapel Road,” he
said of Eddie Dunbar (Team Ineos) going early and taking no prisoners.
“Eddie lit it up from the bottom and Sam (Bennett) and
Ronan McLaughlin came over the top making the selection,” he said of the
breakaway that he and Mark Dowling were also in.
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McLaughlin was first to lose his place up front, followed by O’Mahony. And while Dowling lasted with Dunbar and Bennett until the start of the last lap he too was eventually distanced.
Bennett (Bora-hansgrohe) went on to beat Dunbar in the
sprint for gold. Ryan Mullen (Trek-Segafredo) broke clear on his own late in
the contest to take bronze.
O’Mahony finished in the chasing group that Mullen had
attacked from. Rory Townsend (Canyon dhb) won the sprint for 4th from that
group.
O’Mahony was next, in 5th place in the elite race and so
crowned U23 Irish road race champion.
While he rued not staying in the breakaway early in the
race, Darragh O’Mahony took a no-nonsense approach to appraising his own
performance.
“I had that type of short effort in me to get into that move but I didn’t have the legs to be able to stay and ride with the two lads they were just too strong,” he said of Bennett and Dunbar.
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“After that I finally got my breath back and got swept up
by the chase group just before the race was stopped.
“I was fairly pissed off with myself that I couldn’t stay
with the break. But the U23 jersey was still up for grabs.
“So I knew my race wasn’t completely over. I did know though with the way the boys in front were moving that we wouldn’t be seeing them again.”
While the leaders never managed to pull their gap much
over 1:30, they looked strong to the point the race was stopped due to Ben
Walsh’s crash.
When the event got going again, it looked for the
briefest time that a chase group was putting inroads in the three riders up
front.
“After the restart our group of six went away in the
crosswinds on Foyle Bridge,” explained O’Mahony.
“We worked fairly well from there to the last lap but
never made up any real ground on the lads in front.
“At 4km to go on the Foyle Bridge one of the riders in
our group cycled into a cone on the road. So I ended up on the floor behind
him.
“I was in a bit of a panic trying to coax my chain back
on but I was serviced very quickly after and with a bit of a chase I came back
to the group inside the last kilometre.”
Having then managed to take second place in the sprint
from his group, he capture the U23 crown; a terrific prize for any rider and
one O’Mahony said he was happy with.
“It’s my first ever national title so I am obviously
delighted with that,” he said. “I’ll hopefully get to wear the shamrocks in a
few races later this year anyway.”
He added the championships have been a fantastic weekend
of racing and praised promotes Foyle CC and the club’s volunteers for their
work.
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