Another aggressive display out front at the Tour of Ulster has brought stage and overall honours for Bryan McCrystal and Damien Shaw (above) on a very tough final day of racing (Photo: Marian Lamb - Cycling Ulster)
After making his own of the race on yesterday’s stage 2 but failing to dislodge yellow jersey Greg Swinand, Aquablue’s Damien Shaw had another bite of the cherry today and this time made no mistake.
Joined by his team mate Bryan McCrystal on a miserable day for racing on the third and final stage of the Tour of Ulster, Shaw and his co-conspirator showed no mercy in building a lead of close to three minutes on the yellow jersey group they fled from late in the day.
And by the finish it was McCrystal who sailed over the line first for the stage win with Shaw in second place; a reversal of their finishing order yesterday.
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Some three minutes would elapse before UCD’s Eoin Morton led the remainder of the breakaway home for third on the day.
But stage victory for McCrystal and Shaw was only part of the picture.
The duo had started the day 7th and 8th overall, with Shaw one place higher than McCrystal and six seconds closer to the yellow of UCD’s Swinand. The Mullingar man had 23 seconds to pull back on Swinand as against McCrystal’s 29 second deficit.
Shaw also held the climbers’ jersey after winning all of the climbing primes yesterday on a stage when he spent most of it out front, only to be joined by McCrystal and Marcus Christie (Cycling Ulster) after the last climb of the day in the shape of Glenshane Pass.
Shaw had the green jersey too after his stage 2 dominance, but it was yellow he was after and it was yellow he goes home with after three very tough days of racing.
He and McCrystal were among a breakaway that went clear on the first lap of five today; a lead group of 12 pulling away in the first instance, with Conor Murphy (Caldwell Cycles) taking the first KOH followed by Shaw, Morton and emerging young gun Daniel Stewart of Cycling Ulster.
Also in that lead group of 12 was the stage 1 winner and yellow jersey of UCD's Swinand.
Behind, with stranded strong men knowing some of those up front were the type of riders who could not be given too much leeway, an eight man group pulled clear in pursuit, with Roger Aiken (Kinning Cycles) and yesterday’s 3rd placed finisher Marcus Christie (Cycling Ulster) also at the head of the race.
Javan Nulty (DID Dunboyne) was also up there and took the first sprint prime from McCrystal, Sean Hahessey and Stewart.
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The chase group then split, with some of those catching the leaders and Aiken making a move to take the second KOH prime ahead of Shaw, Morton and the vigilant leader Swinand.
McCrystal, Swinand, Murphy and Paddy Clarke (Liquidworx-Fitscience) were all active in trying to get clear of the lead group but it was Shaw and McCrystal who delivered the hammer blow.
They broke free after a period of hard attacking on the second last lap, with Swinand, Nulty and McCrystal initially forming a lead trio and getting a gap. They were chased by Murphy and just as he caught them, Nulty had miserable luck in puncturing when the shake-up was underway and he was in the thick of it going forward.
He was not the only one to suffer in that way, with Aiken and Mark Dowling (DID Dunboyne) also having mechanicals late in the day when in positions to pounce.
With Nulty puncturing from the lead group, that left three up front - McCrystal, Swinand and Murphy. They were then joined on that second last lap by Shaw and a couple of others including Clarke and Morton.
McCrystal was keen to press on and as the race completed that second last lap, he was out front alone, with a gap of around 30 seconds.
And second last time up the hill he was joined by Shaw, meaning the two team mates went out onto the last lap with just each other for company and an initial gap of around 30 seconds on Swinand's group.
And when the time gap was reported over the radio it was up to 43 seconds into the last lap. It was game on for Swinand and his UCD team mates if they wanted to keep the overall lead.
But the gap simply continued to grow between the two up front and the yellow jersey group, going north of two minutes and staying there before hitting the three minute marker in terrible conditions that battered the riders with rain and wind.
And at the finish it was McCrystal who took the stage from Shaw, with the latter man taking the yellow jersey. He also kept his lead in the climbers’ competition while McCrystal took the green jersey and another huge weekend for Aquablue.
A very good ride by Stewart saw him take the U23 classification from another talented young challenger and fellow U23 international Cormac Clarke.
More later.
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