Despite taking some huge wins this year, Bryan McCrystal said he will need to change his training if he is to realise his goal of winning a stage race (Photo: Dc Images)
By Brian Canty
Bryan McCrystal has said the win that gave him most pleasure this year was his final stage victory at the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan.
The Aquablue CC powerhouse won the Des Hanlon Memorial Classic, the Traders Cup, the Paddy Flanagan Memorial and a stage of the Tour of Ulster as well as that memorable fourth stage into Killorglin back at Easter.
There, he would escape with runner-up Anthony Walsh (UCD CC), Owen James (BH Solidor) and Chris McNamara (Casco Europe) and win from a sprint.
“I suppose it would have to be that because I showed something all-round that day,” the Dundalk man explained.
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“I showed I’d been riding a while; the lads with me in the break have been riding bikes 15 years, and my positioning and how I calculated gave me satisfaction.
"I was thinking about that finish with five laps to go, how I was going to enter the last corner, what I was going to do."
The former triathlete believed his thinking about the finish carefully rather than powering to the line and hoping for the best was a sign he had developed as a rider.
Pictured above by George Doyle winning the final stage of Rás Mumhan at Easter.
McCrystal would ride the An Post Rás again in May, but his race ended when he crashed hard on the road to Charleville on stage three, his back taking the brunt of the impact.
He would have much discomfort there for much of the season, but is glad to report he’s now through that issue.
“I got back on the bike in mid-October and to make long story short my back was always a wee bit iffy.
"It was always at me after that crash but the fact that I stopped racing and training and then went back, I just put it out big time.
"But the doctors in Cycling Ireland have gotten me on the right road.
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McCrystal has made the transition from top triathlete to top road racer in just a couple of years; the only athlete to make such a successful step between the two sports.
“I’m doing all the rehab, my core needs an awful lot of work but I’m alright now. Doing everyday things like bending over and picking things up can catch me sometimes.”
He’s still keen to do the Rás again, and when it’s put to him he could make the podium he replies: “That’s getting back to the dreamer attitude, if it happens it happens.
"We need to stop writing the same articles every year, this guy can win and that guy can win, that’s dreamland stuff.
"Work hard to try and achieve it and it might happen; you need a damn bit of luck, you need luck to get that win.
"I’d like a yellow jersey next year but where I don’t know, I’d like a yellow jersey in a stage race.
Winning the final stage of the Tour of Ulster back in May after riding away from the rest with team mate Damien Shaw who moved into the yellow jersey (Photo: Marian Lamb - Cycling Ulster)
“But I’ve a lot of work to do, I have to change a lot of things. I’d have to look at myself physically.
“Like this year, I was never going to win the Suir Valley the way the last stage was," he said in reference to the summit finish.
"But I’ll put that in the memory bank and try to change something.
"As Timmy Barry (team manager) said to me, if you do the same things over and over and expect different results then that’s insanity.
"I need to change my approach. That means trying different things in training, my nutrition, my diet.”
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