Sean Lacey is one of the strongest and smartest riders in the domestic peloton and year after year he’s one of the few men animating races from February through to September. He makes more breaks than he misses and puts it all down to hours of training and learning from mistakes (Photo: Sean Rowe)
By Brian Canty
National Road Series winner Sean Lacey has said the 2016 season has been one of his best and he believes he has “gone up another level with regard to consistency” this year.
It’s hard to argue with him as a cursory glance over his results at home will show he’s only been outside the top 10 once - excluding the An Post Rás - and that was a fine 12th at the National Road Championships.
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A member of an Aquablue team full of winners, it’s a remarkable achievement to be at the sharp end of almost every race from February through to September, but not something that happened by chance
“It’s definitely one of my best seasons," said Lacey just days after being confirmed as winner of the National Road Series.
"I’ve always been a consistent cyclist but this year seems to have gone up another level in regard to consistency.
“I got a new coach in Matt Bottrill and I think his input has had an impact on how I’ve been performing in the races this year,” the Tralee man added.
Lacey has always been a keen student of the sport, learning from mistakes and trying new things.
Sean Lacey dishing out the pain to Simon Kelly (Burren CC) during the Brian McNamara Memorial. “It’s definitely one of my best seasons, I’ve always been a consistent cyclist but this year seems to have gone up another level in regard to consistency,” he said.
He’s been on national teams all the way up the junior, U23 and senior ranks.
And despite that experience he always looking for new ways to improve; working with a new coach this year just one example of that attitude.
“Essentially it’s just to get a fresh perspective and a different outlook," he said of that top UK-based tutor.
"When it comes to training with power, Matt has an awful lot of experience with time trials and on the road.
“A lot of his big successes were when he had a family of his own and you could see from his success he was able to balance family life and cycling and that was the same situation I’d have been in.
“I asked him to help out and we were a good team.”
Though he might have won just a few races compared to other years when he’d usually bag up to half a dozen by Easter, he was almost in every break since the beginning of the year.
“I don’t know what it is,” he laughed.
“Often people would say it to me and I’d be thinking the next one is the race I won’t get in.
"But I suppose it’s just experience and calmness at times and that ability at times to be able to read the race.
"(You have to) just say ‘look it’s feeling hard now and I know I’m in good shape’. The race has to go soon…
“But there’s no secret; it is just years of cycling and in the last years I have had a reputation of making the break.
"But years before that, in my early 20s, I wasn’t making them as much so I think it’s just learning from mistakes as well.”
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Lacey stops his clock after the Shay Elliott Memorial in May, a race he would finish fifth in (Photo: Sean Rowe)
Of all his results this year he reckons coming second to Ian Richardson (UCD-Fitzcycles.ie) at the Stamullen GP was among the days that gave him most satisfaction.
“Surprisingly it was there because I was quite sick that day and during the week.
“It was a National Road Series race and I made the break after 5or 6k but didn’t feel good at all.
“The whole race I didn’t feel good but I was just using my experience in trying to stay positive and having that mental strength to believe I was able to get a good solid result.
“To get a good result when you're not feeling good; that to me told me what level I was at.”
Indeed, despite the improvements in technology and training methods as well as younger riders having perhaps more time to train, Lacey still hands down the beatings.
He’s not made a national selection for a number of years now and though he’s losing no sleep over it, he thinks he could still do a job if the call came.
You can usually tell the An Post Rás is nearing when Lacey gets himself down into serious fighting trim. Despite heading for the Autumn of his glorious road career he still feels he has plenty to offer, be it at club or national level. (Photo: Sean Rowe)
“I’m not beyond it; I’ve years of experience and a different outlook at races,” he said.
“I’ve been racing and (have) the mental strength that you could have a good role on an Irish team but I did that as a junior, U23 and senior so I’ve had plenty opportunities.
“When I was younger it was the thing you wanted, not that I’d ever say no to an Irish jersey now but I suppose life is different now.
“It’s a massive honour to get an Irish jersey but there’s an awful lot of things that are important as well; my job and my family and just actually enjoying my cycling.
"I’ve had great satisfaction the way this year has panned out and as you get older you learn that you focus on your own cycling.
“When you’re younger you can get side-tracked and get worried about making selections but when you’re older you focus on your own cycling and get on with your business.”
Lacey said that while the sport might be individual in nature he’d never have achieved half of his results had it not been for an army of followers.
“My wife Eilish and kids (Aoibhe, 7 and Ciaran, 2) give me great support and enable me to achieve the goal of winning the national road series.
"And if it wasn’t for Will Curtin in Cork Giant I wouldn’t even have got up on the bike!
“To my teammates and team management too I owe an awful lot; they supported me in different rounds and provided service for me when I needed it.
"That means an awful lot and this is as much for them as me.”
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