Team ASEA man Chris Reilly went very close to bringing Sean McKenna’s early season winning streak to a halt yesterday in Summerhill (Photo: Sean Rowe)
Runner-up in the Usher IRC promoted St Patrick’s Day race in Summerhill yesterday, Chris Reilly said he and teammate Bryan McCrystal tried everything to get rid of winner Sean McKenna but to no avail.
The trio rode the last of five laps out front with around a gap of a minute when they took the bell.
And as the ASRA pairing outnumbered the Aquablue man, they attacked and counter-attacked him again and again. But McKenna was too strong and took his sixth win of the year.
“I was happy enough, I don’t know how McKenna felt, we just tried everything but he’s just rapid,” said Reilly.
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“It was just the three of us coming down to the sprint, I jumped a few times coming in the road to try and distance him but I just couldn’t.
“He was on my wheel every time and the same with Bryan.
McKenna gets the verdict over Reilly at the finish in Summerhill yesterday (Photo: Stephen McMahon – Sportsfile)
“He was just fast on the wheels. He didn’t wait to think about it; he just responded straight away,” added Reilly.
Reilly, McCrystal and McKenna along with Darragh Zaidan (Adamstown CC) broke clear on the second lap.
And though there had been half a dozen riders up the road already, the quartet went straight through them.
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“There was a move gone previously; Joe Fenlon (Team ASEA) and Mark Dowling (DID Dunboyne) were a couple of those in it,” recalled Reilly.
“I think there was a wee rise so McCrystal went across to it and attacked on the climb and the four of us went across the top of it, drove it down the far side and we were gone.”
They never had more than half a minute on the bunch so knew they had to ride hard to stay away.
McCrystal leads team mate Reilly in the four-man winning move, with McKenna and Zaidan just behind (Sportsfile)
“We only had 25 or 30 seconds for a long time but on the last lap we had a minute.
“We wanted to get rid of Zaidan because he’s a track sprinter and would have been dangerous in the gallop so he tailed off.
“Then the attacking started around 6 or 7 kilometres out. McCrystal was on the front bringing it in,” said Reilly.
“I got alongside McKenna when we kicked but no more. I hope I pushed him…”
Reilly said despite being beaten, he was relatively pleased with his ride.
“I got dropped from the chase group last Sunday so I had it in my head to do well yesterday.”
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