Martin O'Loughlin leading the bunch at the Tommy Sheehan Memorial on Tuesday; he would later crash and has now been diagnosed with some serious injuries (Photo: Sean Rowe)
Top veteran rider Martin O’Loughlin is facing a layoff from cycling for at least a couple of months after being diagnosed with broken bones following his race crash in Carrick-on-Suir on St Patrick’s Day.
However, the former elite international and formed national vets’ champion was in good spirits when he spoke to stickybottle and had been discharged from hospital.
He has suffered a broken leg just below the knee and broken shoulder blade – tibia and scapula respectively – after being in collision with a car while leading the Tommy Sheehan Memorial out front alone on Tuesday.
The Carrick Wheelers rider had escaped in the day’s winning breakaway – also featuring his son Michael of the NRPT-Magnet.ie team – and had attacked them in the closing kilometres.
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He was building a gap as those behind chased when he rounded a sweeping bend and collided with a car.
It appears O’Loughlin’s leg was broken on impact with the vehicle and that the damage was done to his shoulder when he was thrown onto the bottom, breaking the windscreen.
Riding, second from right, in the early breakaway before it was reduced in size over the tough course (Photo: Sean Rowe)
He had pulled clear on the first of two laps with, among others, Darragh O’Mahony (O’Leary’s Stone Kanturk CC) and the in-form Henry Cooke (Limerick CC) who was a winner in Mayo last weekend.
At the end of that lap, O’Loughlin Jnr rode across to the group. And on the run in to the finish, at Ballydorn with around 10km remaining; O’Loughlin Snr attacked and got around 20 seconds.
The escape split in the chase after him but then regrouped inside the final 5km when O’Loughlin Snr jumped again, only to crash a little closer to the finish.
“I went up onto the car and broke the windscreen of the car with my shoulder,” he recalled.
“And then I ended up the road, sitting facing the two lads coming towards,” he said of his son and Cooke, with O’Mahoney just behind them.
O'Loughlin, second in line, was coming off best in the closing exchanges when his unfortunate crash occurred (Photo: Sean Rowe)
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O’Loughlin said he shouted at his breakaway companions to keep going, which they did, only for O’Loughlin Jnr to take the win.
His father was tended to by paramedics and taken to Waterford Regional Hospital where X-rays confirmed his injuries. He expects to be off the bike for between six weeks and three months.
He said he was surprised the injuries were so serious.
“There’s barely a mark on me,” he said.
“I’ve one small nick on my knee and that’s it. I could feel my shoulder clicking but I had a full range of movement when I was still on the road. I thought maybe I’d done tendon damage.
O'Loughlin Jnr keeps the Tommy Sheehan Memorial in the family after his father and defending champion was in collision with a car not far from the finish (Photo: Sean Rowe)
“And apart from a small buckle to the back wheel that a new spoke will fix, the only other thing wrong with the bike is a broken stem.
“I’d say that happened when the bike went up in the air and came down and hit the road; I seemed to take all the impact.”
It is the second season in succession broken bones have interrupted his racing.
He crashed in the Corkman Three Day last year after winning two stages. He broke four ribs on the final stage but remounted to finish 3rd on the stage and 3rd overall.
He now believes he has broken 17 bones in crashes, albeit in a busy and prolific career spanning over 30 years.
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