Sean Lacey on his way to winning the Des Hanlon Memorial on Sunday; he believes he is stronger now than 12 months ago
By Brian Canty
Sunday’s winner of the Des Hanlon Classic in Carlow, Sean Lacey says he’s stronger than he was last year and believes next weekend’s Rás Mumhan could be one of the hardest in recent times.
Lacey, a lecturer in CIT who also runs his own statistical analysis company, said Sunday’s was the sweetest one-day win he ever achieved and anything he does next weekend “will be a bonus”.
“It’s definitely the best one-day result I’ve ever got,” he beamed.
“The Lacey Cup has a lot of significance because I’ve a lot of emotional attachments with that race. But this is one of the biggest races in Ireland and it’s a race I’ve always wanted to win and it was great to come through with it.”
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“I hadn’t planned to go from the line but then when I was warming up the legs felt very good and I knew with the conditions being so cold I thought the lads mightn’t be necessarily switched on at the start. I said I’d go for it and see what happens. I knew it wouldn’t have taken an awful lot out of me if I was brought back straight away,” he explains of his 157 kilometre break.
“When I went it was great. I was in a break of five straight away with Ryan O’Donovan (Cork County), Ian Richardson (UCD), Colin Robinson (Stamullen) and an Orwell rider and we worked very well straight away. The Dundrum rider got distanced going through Arles and then about 5-10 miles later we were on a long main road climb and Olan (Barrett), Joe (Fenlon) and Liam Frawley (Galway Bay) came across.”
“We worked well, we organised it very fast. Initially we had a gap of about 50 seconds going off the main road, that was brought back to 30 seconds on the climb but I knew that was because the bunch would have been attacking the climb. By the time we got to Castlecomer then we had over a minute. Everyone was dedicated, worked hard and it worked out well.”
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Though they would lose two men in the shape of Barrett and O’Donovan, they gained one in Conor Murphy. And Lacey knew he was a danger man coming into the finish.
“Frawley was cramping a bit and missed a few turns but the rest of us – Conor Murphy after coming across on his own - were strong. That was good because it gave us that extra body and we rode hard up the Butts the last time. I felt we were in a good position going down off that and obviously we had a numerical advantage. But we still couldn’t mess around too early and start jumping. Then with a kilometre to go, Joe attacked. Conor chased him hard and almost had him and I attacked off Conor then and the game was up after that.”
Lacey now turns his attention to a race he won in extraordinary circumstances in 2011; Rás Mumhan. That final day in Killorglin, a 30-man break stole off the front of the peloton and while many in the top 10 made it, the yellow jersey missed it and the group stayed away, giving the Tralee man the win.
“I’m stronger this year than last but the year I won Rás Mumhan was different because the race was later (the last weekend in April). I’ve put in a good winter, I’ve been very fortunate. I was sick a few times last year but not this year and it’s amazing how you can tell based on your form.”
“I’m very much looking forward to next weekend but everything will be a bonus down there. I’ve had a great start to the year with three very big wins that I’m very happy with. But I’m part of a very big and a very good team. Olan is strong, Joe is strong, Shaw, Timmy, Keith Gater, Robin Kelly; they’re all very strong and capable of big results by the end of the season. I’ve had a great run and maybe next weekend it’ll be one of them. And if it is I’ll be more than happy to help them out.”
Of Saturday’s 150 kilometre leg-breaker around West Cork he said: “I know the road very well. I would have often trained there underage with Tralee BC. It’s a very tough stage there’s no doubt about it, there’s no flat, it’s up or down the whole time. It’s going to be very hard because the Friday stage is a late stage so you don’t have a lot of recovery before the next stage and you’re starting it and climbing straight away out of Kenmare so it’s going to be tough. The weather, if it’s anything like today, will make it horrific altogether. The lads who have the winter training done will show it.”
And a word on his infamous 5am starts to facilitate training?
“It’s the only way to get in the training. With work, things can drag on and if you’ve three hours hanging over you, you mightn’t get it done so I start early. It’s always tough and there’s times when you question yourself but when you have days like Sunday it makes it worthwhile.”
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