Eventual winner Damien Shaw does his turn on the front of the escape on his way to victory at the Visit Nenagh Classic yesterday (Photo Brendan Slattery)
By Gerard Cromwell
Having finished second to then teammate now directeur sportif Timmy Barry last year, Damien Shaw went one better yesterday taking the Visit Nenagh Classic in a one-two-three for his Cork-based Aqua Blue team.
Shaw closed a 30 second gap to make his way across to an early move and as the rest of the group fell apart one by one, Shaw remained at the head of affairs with only teammate Sean Lacey for company.
“There was a group up the road on the first climb and I got across to them,” said Shaw.
“I think they had about half a minute or so. I had two teammates up the road, and there were two UCD, two Dutch guys and a few others. We rode well as a unit and got the gap up to a minute.
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"A few of them started to suffer and I think we were down to about five going through Nenagh the first time.”
Leaving fellow escapees Stephen Murray of Dungarvan, Owen Cummins (Osborne Meats-Edge Sports), UCD’s Colm Cassidy and Dutch duo Coen Rijma and Jos Harms to fend off a chase group coming across from the bunch, Shaw and Lacey jumped clear on the penultimate climb of the day, heading towards Nenagh for the finish.
“On the second last climb, just after the country mile, I could see some of the lads were a bit shook after the off road section and I attacked at the bottom of the KOH,” says Shaw.
“By the time we got to the top, myself and Sean had a minute gap. With two teammates riding flat out, we said we’d ride as hard as we could until the top of the next climb. We had three and a half minutes or something at the finish.”
All that was left to decide on the run in was who was going to take the victory for Aqua Blue. In the end it was Shaw who crossed the line first with Lacey playing bridesmaid this time around.
“I was second there last year and I think Sean was second the year before but my second place was probably fresher than his,” said Shaw of the discussion between the two.
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Behind, first year senior Dylan Foley had made contact with the rest of the breakaway group and just pipped Ronan McLaughlin of Dig Deep-Inspired Cycling in a very close sprint for third to give the Aqua Blue squad all three places on the podium.
“With myself and Sean up the road, I think Dylan had a bit of an armchair ride and took the sprint for third,” said Shaw.
“He surprised us all. It’s fantastic going for a young lad to be racing 150km and be getting up in the results. We said at the start of the year that we were all going to push each other on.
"Timmy Barry’s biggest motto is ‘it’s all about teamwork’. Today, Robin (Kelly) was in the original break at the start and he was the one who pulled it away and dropped some of the Dutch lads.
"He had a bit of a mechanical issue then but we’re all willing to sacrifice stuff for each other in this team.”
Shaw had nothing but praise for the race organisers too although there was some criticism of the calendar, with the Stamullen Grand Prix and the Visit Nenagh Classic clashing on the day.
“The Visit Nenagh Classic is a hard race, with five or six good climbs on it," he said.
"To me, it’s one of the hardest races in Ireland and should be a blueprint for most other races. That and the Shay Elliott Memorial are probably on a par, but Rene Van Dam down there is very innovative and that’s what cycling races in Ireland should be doing.
"I suppose the fields were kind of split today between Nenagh and the Stamullen Grand Prix. Stamullen is a very good race too and it’s just a pity they were both on the same day. It’s a shame the way the fixtures worked out.”
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