By Liam Coates
Hot off
her first win of the season, Caoimhe O’Brien is looking ahead to bigger goals
in the season to come, starting with the opening round of the Cycling Ireland
National Road Series this weekend.
The
19-year-old is no stranger to the limelight of late, scooping victories at the Des
Hanlon and John Beggs Memorial races last season with her trademark dogged
sprint.
It’s
this sprint she’s been honing with new coach Thomas Fallon, and it’s a weapon
she deployed on the opening weekend of the season to win the Seamus Kennedy
Memorial. The Torelli Cayman Islands Scimitar rider was also 10th in
the A3-Junior race at the Life Credit Union Newbridge GP yesterday.
She told stickybottle last season’s successes were partially “right place, right time”. But this time she’s put in the legwork and it’s already bearing fruit. Fallon has really encouraged a step change in her training routine, and it’s now on “another level.”
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“I
really wanted to push myself, so I attacked a minute into the race, and I looked
back and realised I had a gap,” she said, when asked about the blazing start to
her winning rider in Co Meath. Her early solo breakaway held for about twenty
minutes before the other riders caught her.
The race in its final stages saw a three-rider move take shape in the lead with Caoimhe, Aoife O’Brien - her sister and fellow club mate - and Eve McCrystal of Bellurgan Wheelers joining forces.
McCrystal
opened up the final sprint, but ultimately it was Caoimhe’s relentless legs
that saw her clinch the top spot, with McCrystal and Aoife O’Brien coming in
second and third.
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The dopamine
hit after a hard-earned win is something else, says Caoimhe. “When you really
dig deep and ride aggressively and then get the win there’s that extra kind of
feeling you get.”
The tactical
aggression was a nice change for women’s racing, O’Brien says, and it’s
something she wants to see more of as the season stretches on.
But even though she’s delighted with her win, she says the Europeans and Nationals later in the season are bigger goals. At Nationals last year she “burnt too many matches too quickly”, finishing 9th. At the Europeans she put in a performance she wasn’t happy with. And O’Brien seems determined to redeem herself as a heavy hitter this season.
While looking ahead to those goals is on her mind, she also says having her younger sister racing alongside her is something she cherishes.
“Because we grew up racing and training together, we've got a really good bond so if one of us is having a bad day we know what to say to make the other feel better.
“Even
when we were in the break (at the Seamus Kennedy) I got such a boost when I
looked back and saw Aoife… it was her first really decent senior result. I love
racing alongside her.”
O’Brien
says that even though the two are always competitive, she loves giving her sister
a helping hand.
“Because
I'm two years older and I've been there, I know what it's like. And (with
Aoife) in Leaving Cert I also know what it's like trying to manage training and
studying. So I feel like I’m able to give that little bit of advice and say:
‘it'll be alright in the end - do the hard work now and you'll be grand’.”
We’ll
see in the next few months if O’Brien’s own hard work pays off, but the fruit of
victory is getting ever sweeter for this young powerhouse.
