Shaw and Burns big winners at Cycling Ireland awards night

Damien Shaw with the big prize at last night's Cycling Ireland awards ceremony in Dublin.

Elite national road race champion Damien Shaw and time trial record breaker Eileen Burns were last night named Irish male and female domestic riders of the year.

Shaw suffered a number of setbacks but responded magnificently each time this year.

He went close to three stage wins at the An Post Rás before taking the biggest win of his career at the national championships in Omagh in late June.

Burns beat off some stiff competition – including three juniors - vying for the women's prize.

Her biggest achievement was smashing a four-year old Irish 10-mile time-trial record, shaving 41 seconds off the previous marker set by former World Track Championships bronze medallist Caroline Ryan.

- Eileen Burns demolishes Caroline Ryan’s 10 mile TT Irish record

Ballymena woman Burns also won the Ulster TT League and beat a huge number of men on more than one occasion in various races around the country.

Some of the other winners were Michael O’Loughlin and Ciara Doogan who were named best junior riders of the year.

Both represented Ireland at the World and European road championships while also getting exposure to the rigours of track racing.

A popular winner of the volunteer of the year award was Dany Blondeel of Ards CC.

Dany has been one of the unsung heroes of Irish cycling for many years and his dedication to developing young riders by assisting them with racing and accommodation in Belgium was given due recognition.

Banbridge CC picked up the prize for Club of the Year; their Trojan work in developing riders across all disciplines one of the reasons why they were nominated.