He was riding, and winning, his first race as a junior but Aaron Doherty (16) looks like a class act already (Photo with many thanks to Darragh McManamon-Dublin Wheelers)
Getting straight off the plane from a warm weather training camp Majorca and sitting onto a bike in wet and windy Ireland in February to race is rarely a recipe for success.
But for 16-year-old Aaron Doherty (NRPT) it proved a winning formula at the Mick Lally Memorial promotion in Summerhill, Co Meath, today.
The Westport man teenager, riding his first race as a junior, managed to get up the road in the race-winning move.
And showing great strength and a refreshing confidence, he blasted up the steep finishing climb into a block headwind in the rain to take his first win of the year.
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And he got his two hands in the air in triumph though it was his first race as a junior rider.
Doherty signalled his intent last year while still a youth rider, put in two very strong rides against some top opposition when in his native Mayo.
Last July he won the T Bourke Memorial Criterium in Westport; taking advantage of a handicap he got on the elite field to lap the bunch on his way to victory.
And one month earlier he had finished runner-up to Daire Feeley – then riding for iTap CC – in the Claremorris Criterium.
Doherty taking a huge win in Westport last summer at the T Bourke Memorial Crit. The 16 year-old lapped a strong senior field and then rode across to the break of four up ahead. (Photo: Conor McKeown)
Now eight months older and stronger and with another winter in his legs, he faced into his first race today, the A3-Junior Ian Gallaher Memorial, with confidence in his ability.
“The first lap was pretty cagey,” he told stickybottle after the finish.
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“Everybody wanted to get up the road in the first race of the season, everyone wants to win.
“After the first lap it calmed down a little bit, I think everybody’s legs were starting to hurt. And then one lad got away by himself second time up the hill.
“I got away in a group of six and we were chasing the guy out front; he seemed to be going very well.
“We only got him with a lap to go and when we caught him we just kept working together on the last lap. Thankfully then I was able to get it on the line at the finish.”
In truth he demolished the sprint, proving far too strong for the others in the breakaway; John Pepperd (Rauland), Luke McMullan (Ballymena RC), Eoin Byrne (Orwell Wheelers), Simon Jones (UCD CC) and Barry Swan (Dublin Wheelers).
Doherty said the section up the finishing straight, which climbs up the Dorey’s Forge ramp, was very testing as the riders faced a strong headwind on that section of the course.
“I tried to attack over the top of that climb at one stage by the headwind got me; there was no way I was staying away on my own into that wind,” he said laughing immediately after finishing.
Doherty may only be out of the U16 ranks, but he was an exceptional youth rider and has already been included in the Irish junior squad.
He was with that set-up in Majorca last week, only returning to Ireland yesterday to get his season off to a fantastic start today.
“It was hard enough over there; I felt it today,” he said.
“I certainly knew I’d been away cycling for a week with the state of my legs today. We did a few big miles and track work there; get some speed in the legs.
“I wasn’t too sure how I’d go today with only coming home yesterday. I thought the legs might be a bit dead but I was grand.”
Asked what his goals are for the year, he sounded relaxed and ambitious in the same breath.
“I don’t know. I’ll see how it goes. But I’d like to go to the Worlds; to see how that would be.”
There were some very good riders in the breakaway, including runner-up John Pepperd home from Australia for a holiday. But Doherty won it very well and looks in formidable form already (Photo with many thanks to Darragh McManamon-Dublin Wheelers)
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