Mark Downey out-sprints team mate Michael O'Loughlin in a two-up medals gallop at the end of the combined elite and U23 men's race at the National Road Cycling Championships in Co Sligo (Photos with thanks to Shea Gribbon)
Mark Downey on his National Champs medal ride
Having impressed so much in his junior years and gone on to do even better in U23 and elite racing, Mark Downey passed another milestone in Sligo on Sunday.
He took his first medal in the elite Irish road race championships; a bronze. And with that came silver in the U23 contest, which was run off within the combined race.
Up ahead of him, Conor Dunne (Aqua Blue Sport) had won elite gold solo. And behind the victor came the Irish amateur and part-time bike rider Darnell Moore.
The Caldwell Cycles Omagh man is, like Downey, an U23 rider. And that meant only one thing; he collected the U23 Irish title as well as silver in the main event.
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Downey was next to finish, with Team Wiggins team mate Michael O’Loughlin for company.
They sprinted for the last medals; Downey taking elite bronze and U23 silver and O’Loughlin the U23 bronze.
For Downey, though a very good ride, it was a frustrating conclusion. Though he paid credit to those ahead of him, he said he got clear in many groups during the race.
And every time he was away he got the “this is it” feeling. But it wasn’t to be.
When Dunne and Moore rode clear on the seventh lap of 10 they were with Robert Jon McCarthy (JLT Condor) and Jamie Blanchfield (Panduit Carrick Wheelers).
Downey tried to get a chase going. But the gold and silver were gone. And he knew it.
As a consolation, himself and last year’s U23 champion O’Loughlin took the race for the remaining medals by the scruff of the neck.
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They forged clear late on the final lap and made sure of some silverware. But the medals weren’t the colour Downey was looking for.
And while saluting those ahead of him, he made little effort to hide his disappointment.
“I’m disappointed to not walk away with a national jersey today,” he said. “I felt very good all day and was in every break except the winning one.
“When it first got away I attacked on the climb and got a group of six to within 15 seconds of it.
“But, unfortunately it wasn't to be. The group wasn't fully committed to bringing it back.
“When I realised I missed (Dunne’s group attacking) I tried to force the group across,” he said of the chasers he was with.
“I hesitated when Dunne went. I thought we’d get across on the hill. It was a good hill; hard but not savage enough to split it.”
Asked how to describe the race he said “surprising” – the action never unfolding as he expected.
“For everyone watching it; every time you came around a lap the front group had completely changed,” he said of the fans by the roadside witnessing some great action.
“So many times I thought ‘right, this is the group’. And then you’d turn around and there would be a group getting back on.”
But once Dunne, Moore and the others were gone; the boat with shiniest medals had set sail and Downey was left scrambling on the dock.
“The race was over and my head had sort of fell off the last lap really,” he explained. “I was looking to win today.
“Then on the last lap through the feed zone, Michael (O'Loughlin) said he would have a go at getting away before the climb and then help me up it if he got caught.”
True to his word O’Loughlin took flight to begin the plan.
“He had a gap and I just rode as hard as I could from top to bottom,” Downey said of the last passage of Hungry Rock, most of the field on their hands and knees at that point.
“I picked him up just going over the top. And that's how we ended up 3rd and 4th.”
While disappointed, he said he was glad to be up there with O’Loughlin; a rider he has soldiered with on national teams and now with the same Continental level trade team.
“It’s great to see Michael back at the high level after a rough start to the year,” Downey said of his team mate who has endured bad luck for a long time this year.
“I know the good shape is back now,” added Downey of his own condition.
“So it’s just a matter of carrying this forward to the next important goals for the second part of the season. You have to keep moving forward.”
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