Having seen a big chunk taken out of his 2023 season when he suffered a serious crash during Rás Tailteann back in May, John Buller faced a prolonged period on the sidelines and then began the rebuilding process. While frustrated by the set-back, he stuck to his plan of working hard to get back in shape in a bid to be able to compete in the final weeks of the season.
Last week that work and persistence paid dividends when Buller (Team PB Performance) sprinted flat-out up the finishing straight of Mondello Park to win the National Criterium Championships on what was his first ever outing at the Co Kildare motor racing course.
And while it was Buller's third national title on the road in recent years, he told stickybottle the significance - and delight - of claiming an Irish crown of any description would never diminish for him.
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"Money can't buy the jersey and there's only a select few get one each year. It's a pretty cool feeling to have three of them now." he said in reference to also winning the elite criterium championships last year in Co Meath and claiming the Irish U23 road race title in 2021 in Co Wicklow.
"A national title is a national title at the end of the day and I have that jersey for another year now, it's a good feeling," Buller said of his victory last Tuesday night, adding it was sweeter because of the issues he had endured earlier this year.
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"This season has been up and down. I crashed in the Rás and broke my arm so I've only been racing for a month or so because I had to make a bit of a comeback after that crash. I had to get surgery on the arm; got a pins and a few screws put in, so it took a bit of time to repair.
"That obviously sets you back mentally and physically for a while. But I knuckled down and I knew there were more things to come; the crit champs was obviously one I was targeting this year."
The sprint to the line in Mondello was very close last Tuesday night, with Conor Murnane (UCD Cycling Club) kicking first and Buller passing him just before the line, with Leo Doyle (ARBO-Headstart ON Fahrrad) taking the bronze.
Buller was away in a breakaway group on the final laps and while the reduced bunch caught them on the last lap, he said "it made no difference because its so fast through those last few corners I knew people wouldn't be able to move up". Once he exited the final bend he said he saw Murnane kicking hard.
"He's one of the really fast guys so it was the perfect wheel to get when he kicked first," explained Buller. He added he got as close as possible to the pit wall on his right in a bid to maximise shelter from the wind, which was blowing across the finishing straight from the riders' right. He was surprised everyone else sprinted on the other side of the road.
"I was probably a bit more nervous than I thought it was going to be," he said of the race. "I'd never raced on Mondello so it was my first time down there. I knew a lot of guys who have raced there during the Mondello Series and who knew the circuit quite well; the way it pans out depending on the wind and so on. So of course I wanted to go down there and I wanted to defend the jersey so I'm happy I was able to do it."
