There were no signs of a lack of winter base for Philip Lavery in Summerhill yesterday as he rode strongly to win (Photo: Rory Keane)
In just his second outing of the year and having decided to stop racing and to sell his bikes over the winter, Philip Lavery struck a familiar pose at the end of the Mick Lally Memorial in Co Meath yesterday, sailing across the finish line with his hands in the air.
Riding for AC Bisontine in France last year and enjoying some very big wins, Lavery did not compete on home roads and so had not tasted victory in Ireland since the 2012 season.
During that year he was riding for Node4-Giordana and raced frequently in Ireland, mostly winning any time he turned up; capping the year with a bronze medal in the elite National Road Race Championships and bagging the U23 title in the process.
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Since then he has ridden a year in France and secured a trial with top French squad Cofidis. But despite doing well there found himself out of a team as major squads collapsed and the market was flooded with riders.
Many of them were quality athletes with UCI points and some with their salaries paid for the year, with defunct teams still legally obliged to honour any outstanding years left of riders’ contracts despite squads folding.
Lavery decided he would end his pursuit of breaking into the big team, only to secure a place in the Synergy Baku Continental ranked team a few weeks ago and put himself back into training.
Last Sunday he pinned a number on his back for the first time this season in Slovenia at the GP Izola, a UCI ranked 1.2 one day event. He was listed as non finisher but told stickybottle after yesterday’s win that he felt good in an international field despite his lack of a winter base.
“I was fine I had no problems at all,” he said of the 142km race.
“I punctured during the local laps and as I was getting back on the KOH started again and guys were getting dropped so the commissaire put a bit of a barrage on.
“If I was stronger, I probably would have ridden back up to the group on my own, but I wasn’t. So I was in the cars and the commissaire wasn’t letting anyone back up, so... But I was happy enough.”
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Yesterday there was little sign of any cobwebs when he got clear in an escape in the A1-A2 race before attacking at the start of the fourth and final lap and time trialling to what looked a comfortable win.
However, he cautioned against getting carried away with that victory.
“I still have a lot to do, I’m not really going well. I only got a bike to train on on February 12th so I don’t have any fitness as such”
He believed it would take him “a few months” to get the kind of condition back that he would like.
“I think maybe by the summer time we might see it coming around again.”
With the Rás still some months away he was unsure at this stage how his form would be.
“I’ll ride the Loir et Cher in France (five day 2.2 in April) and a tour in South Africa. So I could have good legs for the Rás and then maybe into the Nationals.
“And then for the end of the year I want to try and get a medal in the Commonwealth Games. That’s maybe the first realistic goal because it’s so far away I can plan for it.
“They're the last week in July and first few weeks in August so I will have a good bit of racing done before that,” he said of the Glasgow Games.
“The course is technical and short and sharp. There’s some cobbles in it. It would be like riding around Dublin city centre; maybe a few more hills in it. There are some cobbled descents, it’s a difficult course.
“It will suit me. It’s short and punchy. It will be a good field because it’s a home Games so you’ll have a lot of big riders that will turn up. It will be a good goal, I’m looking forward to it.”
Now working with Smart Lamps and planning to combine working with racing, Lavery said 2014 will be different to recent years when he has been full time.
“I’ll keep working through the whole year, I won’t really need to take time off. Once the stretch starts coming back in the evenings... (training) will give me a bit of routine.
“I’m not getting as long a spin in or not getting to go away for a camp but there’s some flexibility on that so we’ll see what happens”.
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