UK rider Dillon Byrne took the first stage of the Suir Valley Three and held the jersey for two more, but had now answer when Mark Dowling hit the afterburners up the final climb of the race (Photo: Dave Coleman - Dc Images)
By Brian Canty
Dillon Byrne was left rueing losing the yellow jersey to Mark Dowling on the final stage of the Suir Valley Three-Day but the Blackpool man is also looking at the positives from a weekend when he at least took a stage win.
Byrne, of the Champion Systems Maxgear team, was third last year, while yesterday his deficit was just over a minute in the runner-up spot on the final general classification.
So it’s no surprise to hear him say he has every intention of coming back for the win in 2015.
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“I’m feeling gutted, but also pretty happy I improved from last year,” he said.
“I feel I put mine and the team’s authority down on the race,” he said of his weekend in which as well as winning the opening stage and wearing the yellow jersey for the following three stages he also took fourth on stage 2, second on stage 3 and the points jersey.
“And if my teammate (Sebastien Bayliss) hadn’t worked so much on the last day, he’d have won the king of the mountains jersey as well. So it’s not all bad.
“People can say we did too much in the early part of the race on the last stage but I’m not sure I’d do anything different, to be honest.
“I just couldn't compete with Mark (Dowling) when it came to that final climb. I was hanging on his wheel the whole way up the Nire and at two kilometres to go I just blew up. I’m more of an all-rounder-sprinter. So I’m happy to have won the points’ jersey and taken a stage.”
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Byrne takes the opening stage on Saturday in horrendous conditions from Bryan McCrystal (obscured) and Mark Dowling in third. They would fill the final podium, but Dowling coming out on top (Photo: Dave Coleman - Dc Images)
He said his team mates “did everything I asked them to do, and more”, describing as “exceptional” their performance in defence of the overall lead he took winning stage 1.
He believed he could have won Sunday evening’s criterium stage in Clonmel but sat up too early only to see Ken Tobin of Cycling Leinster blast past; though Tobin was renowned for such performances when he raced in his late teens.
“I’m very confident I had that stage easily in the sprint, but at the same time, it’s my own fault for getting the wrong bloody line,” said Byrne.
“Shit happens; I can’t fault anyone. It was announced before the race where the finish was.”
Added he thoroughly enjoyed coming back to Ireland to ride the race again.
“We did it last year, did really well, myself getting third overall. And we really wanted to come back this year and race it again.
“The roads were great, the organisation, the crowds, the podium girls, everything about it was great and we will definitely be coming back next year to try and take that top spot.”
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