Bryan McCrystal (left) takes stage three of the Tour of Ulster; his ride this weekend coupled with his Des Hanlon win last month underlining his form ahead of the Rás. It's a race where he may well surprise a few of the professional riders (Photo: Marian Lamb - Cycling Ulster)
By Gerard Cromwell
With wintery showers greeting the riders at the start of today’s final stage of the Tour of Ulster, it was always going to be a day for the tough men.
In the end, it came down to a battle between three of the toughest in the country with Aqua Blue teammates Bryan McCrystal and Damien Shaw eventually getting the better of UCD’s Greg Swinand.
Shaw ousted the big man from his yellow jersey and McCrystal took the stage victory to wrap up the points classification.
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“It would have been ideal if Sean Lacey or Joe Fenlon got in an early break today but it didn’t pan out like that because it was so aggressive from the start,” says McCrystal of the Aqua Blue men placed highest on GC at the start of the day.
“The initial split of about 12 riders happened very quickly, probably in the first 5km of the race. It was a really fast start.
"They say attack is the best form of defence and in fairness, Greg was very aggressive and looked like he wanted it that way. If I’d been about 10 wheels back I might have missed it myself.
"But you had to just go with it and it was me and Damien that made the original move. We just followed, and it kind of suited us as well because then we only had a smaller group to shake up when it came down to it.”
And shake it up the Aqua Blue boys did, at first waiting for defending champion Joe Fenlon to come across in a chase group before launching a flurry of attacks with around 30km remaining.
“We knew Fenlon was coming across with them,” said McCrystal of a section of the chase group that caught the early breakaway he was in.
“Roger Aiken had mechanical trouble on the first climb and it set him back and he was coming across in that group too with a couple of Ulster riders. I think Marcus Christie was there too.
"As soon as they joined us, we slowed up a bit, regrouped and started attacking. I threw a couple of digs and so did Damien. Conor Murpy (Caldwell Cycles) was pretty active as well.”
As the race headed out onto the main road with the wind at their backs, race leader Swinand jumped off the front and was joined by U23 international Javan Nulty. But the Dunboyne man had the misfortune to puncture just after McCrystal made contact with.
After getting clear with team mate Shaw, McCrystal said they didn't speak a word, "it was full gas" (Photo: Marian Lamb - Cycling Ulster)
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“After Javan punctured, it was just me and Greg with two laps to go. I kept attacking, found myself out on my own and quickly got 50 seconds on the bunch.”
McCrystal wasn’t on his own for long however, as Shaw jumped across the gap to his teammate with around 20km left.
“I knew it was just a matter of time,” McCrystal says of the pre-planned move.
“Damien was probably sitting on and getting himself ready and I knew he was going to come across.
"When I heard he was coming, I sat up and waited for him and when the two of us got together on our own we really started working. It was just heads down. We didn’t speak a word, just went full gas.”
In a carbon copy of their attack on stage two, the duo simply rode away from the rest of the field, building up a three minute lead by the finish.
In what has become a bit of a habit for the Aqua Blue squad recently, the two men came to the line together in Maghera with Shaw taking overall victory and McCrytsal taking the stage win and second overall, just four seconds behind his teammate.
“After the ride that Damien did yesterday, he deserved to win,” admitted the Dundalk man.
“He was higher up the GC than me today so I was happy enough with the stage win.
“Yesterday went well, but the climbs were a wee bit too long for me. I’m 90kg, so gravity was going to catch up with me eventually.
"Today the hills weren’t that long and I was able to keep the power up and get over them, recover, and power on again and we were confident that we could do something similar if we just bided our time.
"There was a climb fairly early and it was a cold, wet morning and I’d say lads wouldn’t have been warmed up properly because everyone was sitting in their car and went to the line as late as possible.
"I’d say that caught a lot of people out. If you weren’t prepared to hurt yourself in the first 20 minutes or half an hour today your race was gone.
"We knew lads were going to get tired. Half the field didn’t even finish the race today. Having laps of a course you can find lads out... whether fellas are weak mentally.
"It’s easier to take a right and go home than take a left for the next lap so it kind of suited me today.”
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