Damien Shaw with that familiar determined stare on his way to victory at the Tour of Ulster opening prologue time trial on the Stormont Estate (Photo: Stephen McMahon - Sportsfile)
Damien Shaw has said his victory on the mainly uphill opening stage prologue time trial at the Tour of Ulster in Belfast was an unexpected bonus given he fractured his shoulder less than two weeks ago.
The Team ASEA man, who won the race outright 12 months ago, added while his injury did not hamper him on the short 1km course at the Stormont Estate this evening, Friday, the three road stages to come “might be a different story”.
“You wouldn’t be getting too carried away after a one second win in a short time trial like that anyway,” said the Mullingar man.
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"I have been doing some training on the turbo over the last week because of the injury and maybe tonight was because of that; because of the sharp stuff I was doing.
"But I think (winning) was just aggression really. I didn't warm up much or use a heart monitor or power or anything like that. I just went for it.
"I was paired to start with Sean McKenna and when I saw I was gaining a few seconds on him I thought to myself 'right, I must be on a decent enough ride here'.
Brian Stewert of Team Madigan, left, in action against Jonathan Taylor of Carn Wheelers during the time trial stage (Photo: Stephan McMahon - Sportsfile)
"I wasn't expecting anything at all from it. The idea was not to lose too much time tonight
“We have a strong team here and as far as we are concerned tomorrow is stage 1. And the injury wouldn't show up on a short stage like that.”
Asked if he would try and defend his slender lead given his shoulder injury, which involves some torn chest muscles and a fracture, Shaw said that was not on his mind.
“I wouldn’t be thinking about anything like that with the stages we still have to come. OK, we have a strong team but there are very strong teams here.
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“The Irish Development Team will be good; Sean McKenna has been flying and you have the likes of Martyn Irvine on that too obviously.
“I think Martyn’s strength and his experience will be very important, we saw that down in Kerry at Easter,” he said in reference to McKenna’s overall win at Rás Mumhan when Irvine was on the team.
Ronan McLaughlin, riding for Carn Wheelers this weekend, on his way to 2md place this evening (Photo: Stephen McMahon - Sportsfile)
"There are also other very good Irish riders in the race and you have the teams from abroad too. So this will be a tough race.
"It was very well run tonight; it's a great idea the way they've organised it and they've really turned it into a fantastic spectacle.
"And I think this is going to be a much stronger field this weekend than I faced last year. It has made a big step up this year.
Shaw came down in the finishing straight at the VisitNenagh.ie Classic last Sunday week, when he fractured his shoulder and tore muscles in his chest.
The injury has not stopped his cycling, but it has restricted his training to indoors and he says the injury is very much an unknown quantity over the next three stages, sounding as if he genuinely expects the worst.
He was set to ride the 180km Rutland-Melton International CiCLE Classic in Leicestershire last weekend put pulled out on the eve of the event because he did not want to risk his injury.
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