Now in the colours of Aquablue, Colm Cassidy shows his teeth up the road at Rás Naomh Finian on Saturday (Photo with thanks to Joe Duffy)
By Brian Canty
Runner-up in Saturday’s Rás Naomh Finian in Clonard, Colm Cassidy (Aquablue CC) said he was delighted with the outcome. And he believes only Damien Shaw (Team ASEA) can live with winner and teammate Sean McKenna at the moment.
Cassidy and McKenna rode a phenomenal two-up time-trial for the majority of the 74-kilometre race; going clear early and staying away until the finish, by which time they had well over two minutes on the bunch in Co Meath.
The maximum advantage they held was three minutes; that coming on the outward section of the race as the riders fought the wind from the start at Mother Hubbard's out the old N6 to Kilbeggan.
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And though their margin would be trimmed on the home stretch. it was still a highly convincing win.
Anto Walsh, who moved with Cassidy and McKenna from UCD to Aquablue over the winter, put in the first real attack on Saturday (Photo with thanks to Joe Duffy)
“Sean was the strongest today and he deserved it,” Cassidy told stickybottle after Saturday's race and before McKenna won the Newbridge GP solo yesterday.
“He was quite humble as well about the win, I told him he was the strongest and he deserved it more than me.
“I was absolutely delighted with the result and just happy to be up the road with him. It was good time-trial practice for me as well.”
The pair got away after an initial surge by another teammate, Anto Walsh, was reeled in.
McKenna leads Cassidy up the road as they race back towards the finish in Clonard (Photo with thanks to Joe Duffy)
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“We were gone very early, we just a gap and kept going and that was pretty much it,” recalled former UCD man Cassidy.
“It was a 70k two-up time-trial. Anto launched an attack straight away and that was brought back.
"The next attack was from Sean and I was on his wheel.
“I was told after there might have been one or two on my wheel, but Sean looked back and they were gone so we just ploughed on.
How they looked last year; Cassidy leading then UCD team mate McKenna at the Bogweek Two Day. Third in line is Ian Richardson, one of the power riders who remains in the UCD fold this season (Photo: Pawel Sadowski – Shutterstills.com)
“I didn’t think too much about it; we just made it hard from the start, it was fairly exposed so it made for harder riding.”
On their time gaps Cassidy said: “We got one check on the way out and were told we had three minutes.
"But we turned around (at the roundabout in Kilbeggan), and we had the wind cross tail coming in so we had to put the heads down.”
Related reading - McKenna and Cassidy put the power down in Rás Naomh Finian
Asked how good McKenna is going after what was his third win of the year, Cassidy was full of praise.
“He's flying, he really is. I’ve trained with him a good bit and it’s as good as I’ve seen him going.
“There’s no one with him at the moment with the exception of Shaw. He’s trucking, he’s a talented boy.”
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