After a rough start to the season, not helped by mechanical issues, Bryan McCrystal has taken two National Road Series wins in as many weekends and looks to be on full throttle (Photo: www.jimmymcelroy.com – follow Jimmy on Facebook and Twitter)
By Brian Canty
Bryan McCrystal took his second win of the season today with a swashbuckling display in the Davis Cup in County Mayo this afternoon.
The Team ASEA man had over six minutes to spare on runner-up Sean Lacey by the finish and admitted afterwards he’s in the best form he's been in for quite some time.
“I’m in as good a shape as I’ve been in for a long time,” the Dundalk man said afterwards.
“I had a rough start to the season; I was in the back of the car after mechanicals in the first two races so didn’t actually finish.
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“My first race I finished was on St Patrick’s day; I was a bit rusty there but still managed a good result,” he added in reference to his third place to Sean McKenna in the Usher Irish Road club promoted event.
McCrystal battling the elements in the Cycleways Cup in Navan last month. The Dundalk man endured a slower start than usual but has put that to bed now with two great wins (Photo: Sean Rowe)
“Sean was the better rider on the day but I’m coming into it now and we’re getting into the business end of the season where we want to do well.”
McCrystal said he felt good from an early stage today and initiated the day’s break with an early surge.
“I rode hard into the headwind and established the break effectively; it went straight away.
“It got around eight lads together and we started working after that.
“There was good co-operation, everyone was riding through.”
Three Strong Men: McCrystal, in blue, up the road with Mark Downey and Glenn Kinning the weekend before last (Photo with thanks to David McVeigh and the Belgian Project)
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Also in the move were his teammate Chris Reilly, Simon Ryan (Mego Racing Team), Angus Fyffe (Omagh Wheelers), David Brennan (Castlebar CC), Gareth McCormack (Castlebar CC) and Mike Storan (Fitscience).
“I could see a couple of lads suffering and we weren’t really getting much on the bunch behind so I put the pressure on and only Sean came with me on the third lap.
“I was feeling good, I felt like I was going alright so I wasn’t going to just sit around.”
He got away with Lacey and they rode well but we would attack his former teammate soon afterwards.
An initial acceleration was negated by the Tralee man but the next one wasn’t.
Leading a Team ASEA clean sweep at the Wallace Caldwell Memorial last Saturday week; a welcome win after some strong riding failed to land a victory in the early weeks of the season (Photo with thanks to David McVeigh and the Belgian Project)
“I felt I was strong enough on my own so I attacked him, he came back to me but I attacked him a second time and that was enough.
“For the second last lap I put the head down and powered on hard just to establish a good lead.
“If he looked up the road and saw the gap going out I knew it would deflate him so I wanted to be out of sight.
“On the last lap I was thinking of Kerry next weekend so didn’t want to burst myself.
“I already had a gap, I was just praying I didn’t get a puncture.”
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