How four Irish junior riders claimed an unprecedented result
It was a rare and wonderful sight to see four juniors roll over the line victorious at the end of a race at the weekend. They set out their stall to be aggressive; they stuck to the plan and nailed a high-risk strategy. PJ Doogan, Brendan Flanagan, Liam Wilson and Adam Ward are names you will hear a lot about in 2017.
By Brian Canty
We’ve seen pro teams outnumber the opposition in winning breakaways and somehow make a mess of it.
And we've seen some teams take a clean sweep of the podium, though that is rare.
But what we rarely see is a winning breakaway comprised of only one team.
Yet that’s exactly what happened at the Danny Boy Races promoted by Roe Valley CC on Sunday.
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Liam Wilson crossed the line first. But behind him were PJ Doogan, Adam Ward and Brendan Flanagan.
The impressive Flanagan was claiming 4th after an incredible breakaway effort for two of the five 16km laps.
They are the Powerhouse Sport team. And they came into the race under a bit of self imposed pressure.
They have been keen to deliver some return to their sponsors who have invested in them.
The riders are on Parlee bikes and are using Salice eyewear and helmets and Fizik shoes.
So the investment has not been insignificant.
The Powerhouse Sport riders put the hammer down to shake off the couple of other riders still with them (Photo with thanks to Kieran Mailey)
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“We had a general plan to get at least two men in the break,” explained Ward.
“Brendan spent the first two laps off the front. But the main split came on lap three.
"There was a group of about six off of the front. We could see them just up ahead. So I found PJ and Liam and told them we all needed to get across.
"When we rolled around to one of the two main climbs I kicked hard out of the bunch. And I kept the power on for about maybe three minutes.”
When he looked back he saw Doogan and Wilson with him along with a clutch of A3 men. Flanagan was already in the breakaway they were chasing.
“We rode straight past the guys. Brendan and the A3s jumped on our train as we passed.
"And when we looked back we had about a 10-second gap already.
“We knew the next section of road was hard so we all dug in. We pulled on the front full-gas for the next lap."
A seven-man group would pull clear. It contained the four Powerhouse Sport teenagers and three A3 riders.
And on the penultimate lap the Powerhouse men drove it on the drag up to the finish.
When the A3 riders continued to contribute to the workload it was to prove their undoing.
“Coming up the climb on the final lap I managed to encourage them onto the front," said Ward.
"And then I jumped hard from behind and the other three boys followed me.
“So we took the bell as a quartet. And I made sure that we didn't get too confident too soon.
“We didn't come off the gas too early. We kept the pressure on until about half a lap to go. Then we found out the gap had gone out to two minutes.
“We kept it ticking through until the final mile before sitting up and enjoying the victory.”
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