Sean McKenna, leading, is now full of confidence; apparently getting up the road at will and closing the deal with alarming regularity. It will be interesting to see if he gets the nod for the upcoming Nations Cup races with Ireland despite being based on the home scene (Photo: Sean Rowe)
By Brian Canty
The country’s dominant rider at present, Sean McKenna, made it five wins from six races this season when he took the Boyne GP from a five-man break yesterday.
And the Team Aqua Blue rider admitted his sublime form is down to nothing more than a solid winter, a lot of “sharp” stuff since January but definitely no “crazy 25 hour week”.
McKenna has been simply unbeatable so far this year, winning the Lacey Cup, Rás Naomh Finian, Mick Lally Memorial, the Newbridge GP and now the Boyne GP.
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The only man who has beaten him is Damien Shaw; the Team ASEA rider winning the Cycleways Cup a couple of weeks ago in Navan.
McKenna will start Sunday’s Des Hanlon Memorial as one of the hot favourites, though the former UCD CC man is swamped with college exams this week.
Can anyone stop Sean McKenna? McKenna's former teammate Eoin Morton tried gallantly at the Boyne GP yesterday but was undone by the force of four Team Aquablue men in the five-man breakaway. (Photo: Sean Rowe)
“At the start of the season I had no idea how I’d go so to get five wins is unbelievable, I’m more than happy,” he said after his latest victory.
He said yesterday’s race was effectively over after five kilometres when the day’s escape formed.
“The UCD lads rode very hard from the gun and it was in twos and threes up the road.
"Cass (Colm Cassidy) and Greg (Swinand) got across and had a couple of seconds and then I hopped across before the main road and we just rode hard straight away.
“Between them they’ve serious horsepower, we drove it and it was game over in the first 5k,” he explained.
The others in the break were his former teammates Eoin Morton and Ian Richardson – and there was no hanging around.
McKenna where he's been for the first month of the season; out on his own (Photo: Sean Rowe)
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“We’re all ex-teammates and know each other inside out; there was no messing about," he said.
"We all just rode honestly until two laps to go but with Morton - who is such a good finisher and classy rider - you can’t wait until the end of the race to do something.”
Richardson would tail off, which left it four Team Aqua Blue versus one UCD CC man.
“With two laps to go it was a numbers game and it made such a big difference,” said McKenna.
“I wouldn’t say I was the strongest, it was a matter of ‘you go, I go’, but Eoin was super, super strong and when we attacked no one was getting anywhere.
“So for the last half a lap I just waited for the sprint while the lads kept attacking him; I was allowed to save everything (for the sprint) and that was the only way we were going to be beat him.”
Taking the Mick Lally Memorial from Daire Feeley on Dorey's Forge near Batterstown last month (Photo: Darragh McManamon)
On the secret to his success, McKenna wasn’t hiding anything.
“I got a lot of time off over Christmas, a week before and two after so I got a lot of training in there but from January on it’s just sharp stuff.
“It’s not as if I’m training 25 hours a week because I’m in college. I had an exam this morning, I’ve an exam Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
“I just make the most of my time, do what I have to do but I’m not doing mad hours.
“I did a decent winter because I had time off but I have other things going on; college and training go hand in hand.”
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