Marc Potts takes his second win of the weekend at the Galway Classic yesterday after victory in Donegal 24 hours earlier.
By Gerard Cromwell
It was a good weekend for Marc Potts; the 22-year-old Omagh rider claiming two victories in as many days.
Now based in Belgium but on a trip home to Ireland, he first outsprinted Mike Millar of Phoenix CC to take the JG Memorial in Donegal on Saturday before winning a five-man sprint to claim the Velotec-Bradley Motors Galway Classic yesterday.
“On Saturday, there were only four of us in the scratch group and we had to bring back a minute and a half,” he double man told stickybottle.
“We did that and then we started attacking. My teammate was caught with 10km to go and I went with Mike Millar of Pheonix and won the sprint.
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“Yesterday, there were attacks all day but five of us stuck; Paddy Clarke, Anthony Walsh, a boy from Lucan (Mark Reilly) and a boy from Castlebar (David Brennan).
“There wasn’t many left in the race to be honest. I think a lot of people pulled out. It finished 500metres after a roundabout, into a headwind.
“The guy from Castlebar led it out from the roundabout. Everyone followed him and then it just went down to about 10mph.
“Everyone was looking at each other and the sprint only started at 200metres to go and I won it easy enough.”
Marc Potts, an Omagh Wheeler now riding in the colours of the Belgian Tomacc team, on his way to victory in Galway yesterday.
Although he now has three wins under his belt this season, it hasn’t been a good year according to Potts.
“I’ve had a pretty crap season to be honest. It hasn’t been great. I’ve felt a lot stronger than I was last year but I’ve had crap luck.
"I’ve had races where I’ve been in the break and stupid things happen, like someone riding into my rear mech and ripping it off, or getting a puncture.
“I’ve felt a lot better than I ever have before but it hasn’t translated into results. I’m just glad that this weekend I got a couple of results to back up the work because you kind of lose the head.
“You do all the training and you know you’re going well but you just can’t pull it off in a race and that’s been quite annoying.
“In the Shay Elliott, I was in the break and punctured just before the climb. I got back on the descent but Eddy (Dunbar) and (Damien) Shaw had gone away. I punctured again on the descent. I got back on again but that was the end of my legs.
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“(It’s happened) in all of the races you want to do well in, like the Elliott and the Des Hanlon; I was in the break there too but crashed on a corner and wiped myself out. It’s been a frustrating season.”
Potts missed this year’s An Post Ras and hasn’t raced or trained as much as he’d have liked for the past four years due to college. He qualified as a quantity surveyor a few weeks ago.
“I don’t plan on using it too soon,” he says of his new qualification.
“I just want to ride the bike for a while. It’s a bit annoying trying to do a decent winter and race when you’re in University.
"It’s hard, as a lot of guys know. But I’ll have a good proper winter this year without having to worry about exams.”
Potts will ride for Ireland at the World Student Games before heading back to Belgium to ride for Tomacc Racing Team.
A former elite downhill mountain biker, Potts took up road racing when he started working in his local bike shop, Caldwell Cycles.
“I had to drive two hours to find a downhill track to train at the weekend,” he says of his transfer to the road.
“I started working in the shop in Omagh. They sell a lot of road bikes and told me to try a club race so I went.
"I didn’t really like cruising along in the bunch but I liked sprinting and liked hitting the corners fast. I did a few more and was hooked on it then.”
Since then his club Omagh Wheelers have come on in leaps and bounds, with around 160 members. They were awarded club of the year by Cycling Ireland last year.
After his exams earlier this year, Potts left for Belgium where he races with Tomacc Racing Team, the same squad as Ryan Sherlock. He took his wins here this weekend as he is home to travel to Poland with the Irish team for the World Student Games next week.
“I’ll be heading back to Belgium the week after for the rest of the season,” he says.
“It’s really hard. You can race every day, in races similar to our big classics. Over here, there are maybe 10 guys that can win whereas over there, almost everyone can win.
“I’d love to win a kermesse. They’re hard to win but even if I don’t get a result, I just want to ride really hard races. It’s the only way to get better.
“It’s good hard racing and anyone who comes back from there seems to come back flying.
“I want to try and make the season last as long as I can, get the most out of myself and then go into the winter with a good level. After this winter I hope to be in really good shape for next season.”
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