Damien Shaw did the ride of his life to claim the bronze medal at the National Championships, with his new job as a fire fighter not preventing him from beating pro opposition and underlining the size of his engine. He's seen here in the early stages of yesterday's race leading David McCann, Conor Dunne and Sam Bennett (Photo: Brendan Slattery)
Just two laps into yesterday's 13-lap elite national championship race, three riders signalled their intentions and went clear.
While eventual gold and silver medal winners Matt Brammeier and Philip Lavery remained at the head of affairs for the rest of the race and Philip Deignan crashed out of the lead group, domestic amateur Damien Shaw of the Cork based Aquablue club found himself alongside An Post’s Sam Bennett, Connor Dunne of the Belgian based IV Tekniks team and three time national road race champion David McCann of Synergy Baku.
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As the leaders hovered half a minute up the road for a lap and a half or so, Shaw decided the pace was a little bit hot for his liking and opted for the shelter of the peloton on a windswept Carlingford circuit.
“It was half my decision and half my legs,” admitted Shaw afterwards.
“We weren’t really making any inroads. The gap ahead was holding. The gap behind was holding and the wind was so strong out there that I thought it might be handier back in the bunch.”
The tactic paid dividends for the former runner as he made his way across to the leaders almost 100km later and then found himself in the unexpected position of leading the race alongside defending champion Brammeier and last year’s U23 winner Lavery with two laps to go after Dunne was the last man to be dropped by that trio.
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“It was just back and forth, back and forth,” said Shaw of the constant ebb and flow of attacks during the race.
“All I was concerned with was staying up near the front. I did the same last year. Everybody worries about attacking each other but if you stay up near the front and follow the good wheels then, if you have the legs, you’ll be able to hold on. If not, you’ll blow up.”
In the final kilometres, Shaw, who won gold in the tandem time trial championships on Thursday alongside Paralympic athlete Peter Ryan, admitted he was more worried about hanging onto his breakaway partners than attacking them, or even thinking about beating them in the sprint to the line.
“I was just hanging on,” said the Mullingar fire fighter.
“I wanted to try and keep it together. I didn’t really want the boys to start jumping. I know myself. I know my limits. The boys are riding stage races left, right and centre. I’m working this weekend and have someone covering me at the moment. I have to get back after this because I go on call at six o’clock. It’s a different ball game so I’m absolutely delighted.”
Although he won bronze at the Paralympic Games in London as a pilot for visually impaired James Browne, and won the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan earlier in the year, Shaw ranks his bronze medal ride in Carlingford as the best result thus far in his short cycling career.
“I’ve had a good result in the Paralympics,” he says.
“I don’t know how it compares, but it’s my biggest solo result. You’re self sufficient in this, so obviously I take a bit more satisfaction from the fact that I did it myself. In the last few kilometres, I was just worried about someone coming from behind. I just wanted a medal. I didn’t give a shite what colour it was.”
