Unstoppable: Damien Shaw rides across to team mate Bryan McCrystal and into the final yellow jersey of this year's Tour of Ulster. It capped a huge display by his Aquablue team who won two stages, the yellow jersey, climbers' jersey, points classification, team classification and placed two riders first and second today and yesterday and overall (Photo: Marian Lamb - Cycling Ulster)
By Gerard Cromwell
With dominant displays on back-to-back stages, Damien Shaw of Aqua Blue added the Tour of Ulster to his impressive early season results this weekend.
Having won stage 2 yesterday after spending most of the day out front, Shaw countered all of the early moves by race leader Greg Swinand of UCD before finding himself out front with only teammate Bryan MCrystal for company in the last 20km today.
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By the end of the stage, the duo had turned a 29 second overall deficit into an almost three minute advantage and reversed the previous day’s stage result with McCrystal crossing the line for victory ahead of overall winner Shaw in Maghera.
“After yesterday’s efforts I was struggling," said Shaw.
"And as much as the UCD boys rode for Greg today, Bryan rode a huge race today and we never let them settle at all. We rode hard to get the gap and once it went over a minute maybe the heads dropped behind.
"But we kept riding hard and weren’t taking any chances. For Greg to hold on for as long as he did, it showed he’s in great shape and he deserved the jersey over the last two days.”
It was Swinand however, who started the day’s fireworks; attacking in the opening kilometres and pulling a group of 12 riders clear before hitting the front again with Javan Nulty (DID Dunboyne) and McCrystal.
“I think Greg rode pretty smart,” Shaw said of the deposed race leader and impressive stage 1 winner.
“The main break went straight away. He narrowed down the options. Instead of having most of the bunch attacking him he only had to worry about 10 or 12 and, of those, only five or six were a threat.
"I’ve been in the position of trying to defend a yellow jersey before and I thought Greg did a really good job. And the two lads from UCD rode a huge race for him, they sacrificed themselves something shocking.
"Eoin Morton was with him all the time and then Sean McKenna came across in the chase group. There were a lot of attacks back and forth but Greg was very aggressive.”
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However, Swinand had no answer to the flying Aqua Blue duo in the end and eventually was forced to watch the race disappear up the road with the men in blue.
“Bryan was up the road with Greg and he was trying to soften him up a bit," said Shaw of McCrystal's riding late in today's final stage.
"He knew what he was doing and then he jumped clear and pulled the gap out to 30 seconds on his own.
"The climb on the lap was in two parts, the first part is steep and sheltered and then you turn onto a short drag. I just jumped on the drag and tried to close the gap and eventually made contact with Bryan. Once I made contact the gap kept going out.”
Both men have acted as pilots for the Paralympic squad in the past and the duo looked like they were on a tandem today as they time trialled their way to the line, finishing just over three minutes clear of the rest of the race.
“I wasn’t surprised with the gap we got, not with the effort we put in,” said Shaw.
“Between Timmy (Barry in the team car) and the rest of the riders the team did a huge job this weekend.
"We played it cool and calm when we needed to and we have the strength in depth. Bryan brings more horsepower and we had two options. If Bryan jumped they had to follow him and if I jumped they had to follow me.”
Having won most of the biggest races on the domestic calendar between them this year, the duo will head to the An Post Rás on May 18th with the aim of taking a stage win somewhere along the eight-day route.
“That’s the aim this year, as well as the county team prize," said Shaw of the showpiece An Post-backed domestic event.
"I don’t know how long it’s been since a domestic rider won a stage of the Rás but I’d say if anyone is in a position to do it we’re in a position to do it.”
Brothers in arms: Bryan McCrystal (left) and Damien Shaw in their moment of victory at the finish on a wet and windy stage 3 today (Photo: Marian Lamb - Cycling Ulster)
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