Liam Crowley has overcome almost a year of adversity to get his form back on track with a win yesterday in Co Meath. The 21-year-old University College Dublin scholarship rider missed much of last season due to injury. A crash in Mayo in March at the start of last season was at the root of his problems, though it turned into something of a saga that wasn't resolved until last November.
And in more recent times, after going to Girona to train with his UCD Cycling Club team mates, he fell ill. That meant much of the condition he had built during the winter, and on the approach to the new season, was put at risk.
However, Crowley told stickybottle he was very satisfied with his victory yesterday - secured despite being on the back foot several times until very late in the race in Bohermeen. He felt being on the top step of a podium again confirmed an end to his problems. And he was now hopeful a smoother road lay ahead.
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His latest win came after he sprinted in at the front of a breakaway to claim the Mick Beggan Memorial Shield promoted by Bohermeen Cycling Club.
"I am going well now, but I had a difficult winter," said Crowley from Clonakilty in west Cork. "I had a broken wrist, I actually broke it twice last season, and it was around last November that I was able to start training properly."
Last March, Crowley crashed at Rás Mhaigh Eo, breaking his wrist for the first time. He eventually got back racing again after two months - and won the PJ O’Riordan Memorial in Limerick - before going on to ride Rás Tailteann.
However, he fractured the same wrist again in August, this time not due to a crash but because of a weakness in the bone. And because the bone had broken twice in the same place, he had to be extra cautious with the healing process. It was late October before he was clear to have his cast off and another few weeks, into November, before he could start winter training.
After training for a period late last year, Crowley went off the Girona to train in January, but fell ill with a bad chest infection on his return to Ireland. That resulted in more time off the bike and a loss of condition just before the start of the season.
"I was nowhere near when I needed to be," he said when he started racing last month. "And then going to Rás Mumhan.. that was more like a training camp for me than anything else. But I could feel my form coming up since then."
Despite his problems last year, he secured a scholarship for this season, his second year studying at UCD. "I was really grateful to get the scholarship," he said. "And, mentally, it's just nice to know you're getting a bit of support. Cycling is obviously not easy so it is great to get something; to get that support."
A former O'Leary Stone Kanturk rider, Crowley left that club to join UCD CC when he moved to Dublin to start college. "If it wasn't for O'Leary Stone Kantuk I don't think I'd be where I am (in cycling) now," he said. "I'm from west Cork and there's no big clubs down there. To be fair, (Kanturk) were really accommodating, they really welcomed me into the cycling world, Dan (Curtin) and a few others."
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Looking back on last year, he said the first time he broke his wrist he was able to maintain fitness on the home trainer and returned to racing in good shape. However, the second time he broke the bone the season was in its last weeks and he found it very hard to try and maintain condition while injured at the start of winter.
"I lost a lot of fitness the second time and it was very hard to start again at ground zero," he said. "If you have form and you get injured, you can keep some (condition) and come back and hit the ground running. But when you get injured at the start of the winter, it's very hard to keep training when you know there's nothing coming up.
"Then it's very, very hard to get back up to the level you were at before. I was starting from the bottom, I just wasn't fit at al. And I remember going out for a few spins with the lads and getting absolutely blown out the back. But you have to persevere and I'm just glad now I've won a race and I'm starting to see that bit of form again."
Taking the win in Bohermeen
Yesterday in Bohermeen, he was one of a small number of A1 riders to go through all the groups ahead; claiming victory from Paul Kennedy (Burren Cycling Club), Aaron Rafferty (Moynalty CC) and fellow UCD man Sean Landers.
Christopher Marshall (Molenspurters) and Josh Callaly (Navan RC) were also in the front group fighting for victory. Those two juniors had started in the limit group in the handicapped race but survived out front with the leading A1s after going on the attack early in the race and staying away until the closing stages.
Yesterday's handicapped race, for all categories, was held on a course of 7.5km, with eight laps of racing in Bohermeen. When a crash occurred about 20 minutes into the event, the action was neutralised for a lap.
After the A1 group caught the A2s, a number of riders - including eventual winner Crowley - got clear of that combined group and caught the A3s. Once the catch was made, more attacks followed and a breakaway of A1 riders went clear.
Kennedy and Landers were in that move as well as Rafferty; that trio going very well at present. They managed to get a gap as they pursued a junior breakaway leading the race. As Crowley had Landers up the road, he sat back for a time, with Sean Lenehan (Spellman Dublin Port) and Adam Gilsenan (Arabay Cycling Friendly) stepping up to contribute to the chase in the remains of the peloton.
However, as the race progressed the steam ran out of the chase and the prospects of the breakaway succeeding began to increase. On the penultimate lap, with the breakaway about 40 seconds off the front, Crowley attacked and got clear with team mate Conor Murnane.
As Murnane is doing final year exams this year, and so not in top form yet, Crowley did much of the work in trying to catch the leaders. He made up a lot of ground quickly, but just as he and Murnane caught the breakaway, an attack went off the front. Kennedy and Rafferty were in that move along with first-year junior Callaly, who was mixing it with the A1s in the final of the race.
Crowley saw them riding away and, though he had just closed a big gap, he went again and rode across to the three leaders. As they neared the finish, the chasers were just behind Crowley, Callaly, Kennedy and Rafferty.
Indeed, the chase group just about got up to the four leaders as the final sprint began. But Crowley proved too fast for the others; taking victory from Kennedy and Rafferty. Landers came through from the chasing group in the sprint to take 4th, with juniors Marshall and Callaly 5th and 6th.
