Ruairí Byrne (UCD Cycling Club) has ended his first weekend of the domestic road seasons with two hard races in the legs, and his victory in one coming at the expense of Daire Feeley, the Burren CC man who always has a target on his bike.
Today in the main event at the Seamus Kennedy Memorial, promoted by Navan Road Club, Byrne got up the road early. Though it wasn't exactly of a case of 'never looking back' he made it to the line sprinting for victory having split the breakaway late in the day.
The 20-year-old, currently studying electronic engineering at University College Dublin, was in Spain for a three week camp in January, with some other top Irish riders. That aside, he told stickybottle he aimed for "consistency" over the winter.
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At the end of the 114km contest - three laps of a 38km course - it came down to the wire, with chasers closing in, some of the main breakaway men being other but others hanging on.
"I was just getting in moves early on and then, all of a sudden, I found myself in a group of eight and we just rode together very well, he chipped away," he said.
In that group with the eventual winner and runner-up, Byrne and Feeley, were Joe Nathan Matar (Orwell Wheelers), Sean Lundy (UCD Cycling Club), yesterday's Annaclone GP winner Mitchell McLaughlin (Wheelbase Cabtech Castelli), Greg Clarke (Bray Wheelers), Ruairí Woods (Spellman Dublin Port) and James McKenny (Moynalty Cycling Club).
Though the breakaway knuckled down and was getting time checks of two minutes, there were others closer to them, some nearly getting across.
Luke Smith (Moynalty CC), JB Murphy (Kilcullen Cycling Club Murphy Geospacial) and Ciaran Maguire (Dan Morrissey Pissei Cycling Team) formed one such group. They rode hard for much of the race, closing to within about 20 seconds of the leaders on the second lap.
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"We kind of knew, even if they got across, they'd be quite chinned because they chased for so long and we weren't riding easy, let's say," Byrne said.
"I attacked the last time up the hills and I'm brought Mitchell, Feeley, and Joe with me. And we just worked together to the finish on sprinted in the final."
The sprint for victory was a four-up fight, though it really came down to Byrne and Feeley, with the UCD getting the verdict. Then came McLaughlin in 3rd and Matar in 4th, both at one second.
Patrick O'Sullivan (UCD Cycling Club) then came through for 5th, at 13 seconds, just ahead of three of the breakaway men; McKenny in 6th, Woods 7th and Clarke in 8th.
"We looked around at each other in the last k, so the gap came down a good amount then," Byrne said of some of the chasers getting closer. "I was very happy with the win, it's the first big win really for me; happy enough with that. It was good to get to season started well."
Having begun his campaign at the Mick Lally Memorial on Saturday and then gone and won in Navan on Sunday, Byrne said he was looking forward to the season ahead. Asked if he would hope to get picked for Ireland in the year ahead, he confirmed he was hopeful.
"I'm going to do a few of the stage races with UCD anyway and then I'll see how I'm going," he said. "I do hope to get picked for an Irish team again. The last time I raced with them I was as a junior, so it was a while ago now. And I'd always like to have a good nationals as well, so that would be one of the main goals from me.
"I just tried to stay as consistent as possible (with winter training) and it means whenever I have a setback or anything it just levels it out, it's not too bad."
He added he had trained in Spain with a group of Irish riders; Ronan O'Connor (Team Skyline), Liam Crowley (Team Vorarlberg) and Eoin Clifford (Dan Morrissey) among them.
