Danny MacDonald traveled home to Clooney Quin, just outside Ennis in Co Clare, yesterday with the Lacey Cup in his kit bag. The 20-year-old was best in the sprint from a small group that settled the Munster season opener in Tralee, Co Kerry.
While claiming such a big win would have been a great first day of the season for anyone, it had added significance for MacDonald given the challenges he has faced in the last couple of years after contracting meningitis; a life-threatening condition.
“It was a pretty good day alright,” he said when asked about his win. “I was delighted with it. It’s been a long two years.” The “two years” MacDonald referenced relates to Covid-19 in one sense but more specifically to his own health challenges.
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“The last two years haven’t been great. I got very sick in March, 2020, and it took me about a year-and-a-half to recover from it. I got meningitis and it wasn’t much fun,” he added of what is a life threatening condition which results in the inflammation of the fluid and membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord.
“Really this was my first race back fully fit since 2020. It’s been a rough few years but everyone has more or less been in that same boat with Covid and everything. It was probably a good two years not to be able to race properly."
MacDonald said while he was only in hospital for a week to 10 days when he initially fell ill, the recovery involved meant he couldn’t train for seven months. And even when he could get back out on the bike, full recovery from the condition took longer.
“When I started to get back out on the bike, I’d do two or three weeks of training and then I’d just die again; I’d be very, very tired. I just wasn’t able to train properly but my team mates and my sponsors and my coach Kyle Wolfe; they really stuck by me and they helped me a lot. They made sure I was still having fun with the bike and that was the main thing.
“So it’s been a long two years and, to be honest with you, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to ever race properly again. So being able to get the win today; that was something.”
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Asked how his parents reacted, he laughed: “They were pretty happy, yeah. I’d say my mam was happier than I was! It was great and I’m delighted for the sponsors and we’re hoping to have a team in the Rás this year.”
MacDonald said during the first phase of yesterday’s race, of about 20km, he was part of the A1 group that was trying to catch the A2 and A3 bunches in the handicapped event. The juncture was made with the A3s after the first climb, followed by a “cagey” period of racing, especially on the coast road when the riders were buffeted with a headwind.
At that point, MacDonald said he tried to get away, as did his Burren CC team mates Mark Shannon and Enda Murray, though those efforts were initially not successful.
“Eventually Mark got away in group with Conor Hennebry (Dan Morrissey-MIG-Pactimo), Tom Regan (Seven Springs CC) and one or two others,” MacDonald explained. #
“They got out the gap to about 1:20 so at that stage I thought the race was over so I kinda sat in the bunch and watched the wheels. But on the climb a couple of moves starting going and we could see the group ahead. Then the Killarney lads put in a chase and they brought the group back quite a bit.”
MacDonald said the breakaway group lingered off the front for a time as they were being caught and he could see Shannon on the back of it, which was the perfect excuse for him to hang back and let the others do the riding.
When it eventually regrouped and the fight for victory came down to a reduced bunch sprint he said the final dash to the line worked out perfectly for him.
“I had enough time to think if I should go left or right, it just opened up for me perfectly,” he said of getting to the line first ahead. He took the victory from his Burren CC team mate Mark Shannon, with Tom Regan (Seven Springs CC) 3rd, Tom Moriarty of host club Tralee Manor West BC in 4th, Stephen Gillman (Dan Morrissey Pactimo) 5th and Richard Maes (All human-VeloRevolution) in 6th.
