Ciaran Maguire has opened his account for the season with a very strong win at the Boyne GP in Co Louth, the Dan Morrissey Pissei Cycling Team rider emerging best from a hard-fought contest among a quality C1 field.
Now aged 23 years, and having won the Waller Cup in Bohermeen last season, Maguire's name has cropped up again and again in dispatches over the last couple of years. But he was clearly very pleased to convert his form into victory in the Jons Drogheda Wheelers promotion.
Though the race was a very aggressive one, over the lumpy 16km circuit from Rathkenny, the moves that got clear were brought back, with plenty of strong riders turning out on the day and ensuring anyone who got clear was going to have to earn it.
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"I'm happy, honestly my legs weren't great there today so I'm happy to get the win," Maguire told stickybottle of getting away in a three-man breakaway deep into the final lap just as "a lot of people's legs were falling off".
"I made a few mistakes last week and I just played it a bit more relaxed this week," he said of a race in which he rode away with a flying Mitchell McLaughlin (Wheelbase) and UCD CC's Patrick Sullivan, also clearly in great form.
"I knew the legs were good but it's easier said than done. There's a lot of people with good legs," added Maguire. "And that's why there was 40 boys there at the end. There was a lot of quality there today, there was always people to chase."
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The pressure was on, and the field split, when the trio got off the front and rode hard; making their move at one of the hardest points of the race. Riding with a real urgency, they looked like they would make it all the way immediately they opened their initial modest gap.
And make it all the way they did; Maguire winning in a three-up sprint from O'Sullivan and last weekend's Annaclone GP winner McLaughlin.
"It's a tough circuit that," said Maguire. "The bunch split in half four laps in and I was at the back. And we were 30 seconds behind I thought it was over. But nothing was sticking today and I sort of knew in the end I had a chance.
"Over the top of the last rise there it just split a few times and I was at the front so I just kept going. The three of us got away and we all worked well together up to the line. It just all split up and we were at the front and people's legs were falling off at that stage."
The Co Tyrone man, working full time in the logistics industry, said he had "probably stepped up" his winter training compared to last year. But he mainly just focused on being consistent through the off-season.
He was now looking forward to riding Dornan Rás Mumhan at Easter and Rás Tailteann, having ridden the latter for the first time last year and now hoping to go back with more experience of what's required.
And though he is working full time, he said he was managing to combine that with his racing. "If you want it enough you'll find time. It's tough, it's nothing but the bike or work. But it's worth it."
