New Irish champion Damien Shaw leads two of the men of the future who put in terrific rides today; Eddie Dunbar and Sean Hahessy (Photo with thanks to www.jimmymcelroy.com)
By Shane Stokes
He’s been one of Ireland’s top riders for several seasons but each time the international riders have been introduced to the mix, Damien Shaw found himself coming up a little short in the hunt for victories.
He was third in the national road race championships two years ago, also placing eighth in 2012 and seventh last year.
In the An Post Rás he finished fourth into Charleville in 2013 and then this year was second, second and third on the final three stages.
Banging on the door but not quite hitting the top step of the podium, he put that statistic right in Omagh today when he took a superb victory in the senior national road race championships.
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In doing so, the Team Asea rider emerged best from a field which included professionals Philip Deignan (Sky), Matt Brammeier (MTN-Qhubeka) and Stephen Clancy (Novo Nordisk) plus continental team riders Ryan Mullen, Conor Dunne, Sean Downey and Eoin McCarthy, Eddie Dunbar (NFTO), Martyn Irvine and Dominic Jelfs (Madison Genesis) and Connor McConvey (Team 3M).
Of those, Mullen had won last year ahead of Downey, and also too Thursday’s nationals time trial race ahead of Dunbar and Irvine.
Shaw leads the escape from Dunbar before it split to pieces on the final couple of laps (Photo: Toby Watson)
Shaw’s success was remarkable in the face of those more experienced riders, and was built on several elements.
Firstly, he was one of fourteen riders who went clear on the opening lap, then later was part of the front group when that group was whittled down to six leaders.
He then attacked with Dunbar on the penultimate lap, timing the move perfectly to take advantage of some indecision behind.
He and the 18 year old then had the horsepower to make the move stick, turning on the pace and pulling well clear of those chasing behind.
Finally, he had enough left in the tank to jump clear of his younger rival inside the final five kilometres, reaching the line one minute and two seconds clear and two minutes 40 seconds up on Dunne.
Eventual 4th and 5th placed men, Conor McConvey hits the front of the escape with Marc Potts of promoting club Omagh Wheelers to his right. Shaw is last man in line (Photo: Toby Watson)
“This means an awful lot,” he told stickybottle shortly after the finish.
“I have been trying for this the last few years. Every year I was kind of close and obviously I have made the jump this year.
“I found myself off the front very early on. A couple of splits formed. I kind of made most of them and as the race whittled down, I was the one that just ended up in the decisive one.”
The audacious breakaway started in the opening minutes of the race, with those present knuckling down to stave off some hard chasing behind by Brammeier, Mullen and others.
As Shaw makes clear, the presence of three of his fellow Team Asea riders was a big factor in helping the move stay clear.
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“I was a little worried about the chasers, but we were very fortunate to have such a big representation in the break with my team-mates Ali [Alastair Macaulay], Chris [Reilly] and Roger [Aiken],” he said.
There's only one thing better than being first to the chequered flag and that's being first to it at the nationals with such a quality field behind you (Photo: www.jimmymcelroy.com)
“We really worked hard to keep the break away. The lads really sacrificed themselves for me.
“We were able to force on the pace, make the decisive splits. Everyone in the race committed so well.
“Again, with our team having such a big representation, we couldn’t afford for it not to work, really.”
Once it became clear that the group was going to stay clear, the next question was who would emerge as the winner.
Dunne was feeling good and attacked just before the end of the fifth lap.
He surged on the drag heading back towards the town, was chased for a while by Shaw but pulled ahead.
Leading the escape is Stephen Clancy, a man who is making huge progress and was an excellent 7th today after also making the winning move last year (Photo: www.jimmymcelroy.com)
However he was hauled back several kilometres later when Shaw, Dunbar, McConvey, Marc Potts (Omagah Wheelers) and Mark Dowling (Dunboyne CC) got across, making it six leaders.
“Conor made a good effort to split it up,” he said.
“He got what he wanted, he split it up nicely, it split into two breaks. Myself and Eddy found ourselves off the front through no real attack.
“The three or four boys were just maybe sleeping a little bit and we committed to it with a lap and a half to go and we held the gap.”
At that point it became more and more obvious that he was in the frame for victory and his subsequent move with Dunbar plus his later solo thrust towards the line sealed the gold medal.
He won the battle between the two of them, but has a lot of respect for what Dunbar was able to do at just 18 years of age.
“He is a fantastic prospect. You can see every time he is asked to make a step up, he makes it.
“Look at today. How many 18 year olds are second in the nationals? I wish him all the best and I am sure he will go really far.
“He will be up fighting for this every other year. Hopefully I will get a few more cracks at it as well.”
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