Having moved up to the junior ranks this year, Cal Tutty has taken his first win of the season, telling stickybottle the longer harder races were suiting him better than youth racing ever did. The Dungarvan Cycling Club man made the main breakaway in the PJ O'Riordan Memorial in Tournafulla, Co Limerick, on Sunday.
And when the attacks started from that move on the final lap of the race, 17-year-old Tutty was again to the fore. He rode clear in a two-man move as the other breakaway riders he had been with were being closely pursued by a determined peloton that never gave up.
At the end of the A3-Junior race in the Newcastle West Cycling Club promotion, Tutty came to the line with Mario Gordillo Bravo (O’Leary Stone Kanturk) and beat him in the final sprint to win.
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"It was a tough course," young Tutty said, after three laps of the circuit, for a total race distance of 81km. "There was a bit long drag at the start of the lap and it was uphill for about the first 10km. Then it was mostly flat and downhill for the rest of the lap, but into a strong headwind. It was hard the whole way around, there really wasn't much recovery."
While Tutty was active from the start, and went clear in a number of groups that he felt had a chance of making it all the way, they were pursued and recaptured each time. However, on the final lap a group of about eight went clear, which proved to be the key move fort Tutty and Gordillo.
In that move with the eventual winner and runner-up were: Eoghan Lattimore and Daragh McGee (both Dungarvan CC), Willem O’Connor (Jegg-DJR Academy), Stephen Sheahan (O’Leary Stone Kanturk) and Sean Tarrant (O'Leary Stone Kanturk), among others.
While the leaders combined well to pull out a gap, the attacks began in the first half of the final lap. Tutty put in a strong dig over the top of the climb - "the legs were feeling good" - and he pulled clear with Gordillo.
"We put the heads down and decided to go for it," said Tutty. "It was hard because the gap was staying at about 30 to 40 seconds for a long time. But then with about 5k to go we got it out to a minute so we knew at that stage we had it."
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Tutty was feeling especially strong up front, so much so that the lion's share of the work was done by the Dungarvan CBS transition year student while he was clear with Gordillo. And at the finish, while both riders rode a great race, Tutty emerged the deserved winner from Gordillo. The duo, who are good friends, rolled across the line together, with Tutty first courtesy of the heavier workload he had taken on while they were clear.
Behind them, the breakaway they had been in was caught by the bunch in the last kilometres of the race. The fight for the final spot on the podium came down to a bunch gallop, won by Stephen Sheahan (O’Leary Stone Kanturk). Vinnie O’Leary (Tralee Manor West BC) was 4th, with Alan Bridgdale (Burren Road Club) 5th, Paul Collins (Newcastle West CC) 6th, Eoghan Lattimore (Dungarvan CC) 7th and Daragh McGee (Dungarvan CC) 8th.
Tutty said while he had "raced the whole way up from U12" he had not won many races in the youth ranks. However, he said in the junior events, where he is competing against senior riders, he felt he was getting on much better.
"I only won one or two (youth) races, and I'd be maybe top 10 in the national championships. But the shorter races didn't suit me," he said. "I prefer the longer races. The longer and hillier and harder the better for me really."
Tutty has been gaining experience both at home and abroad this year as he was part of a Munster selection that rode the Penn Ar Bed-Pays d'Iroise UCI-ranked junior stage race in France last month. Dan Curtin of Munster Cycling secured an invite for the team and arranged for the riders to travel. The race featured 169 riders, with Tutty performing well; taking 13th in the TT and a solid 24th overall.
"It was a great experience and I think doing that race helped me get the win today," he said after his victory in Limerick on Sunday. "Having done that race in France, I think it gives you a lot of experience, confidence. It was madness; 170 juniors on closed roads. It was crazy, even with things like trying to move up in the bunch. It was fairly hard compared to here, a different level altogether."
Looking ahead, Tutty will ride the National Road Championships and the Junior Tour of Ireland later this season while another trip abroad with the Munster Academy could be on the cards.
In the A1-A3 race in Co Limerick yesterday, Aaron Wade (Equipo Cortizo) got the better of Liam Crowley (UCD Cycling Club) in a two-sprint for victory. Crowley's UCD team mates, Joel Luke and Jason Kenny, finished together for 3rd and 4th with Bren Broekaart (Challenge CC) and Paul Kennedy (Unattached Leinster) finishing on their own for 5th and 7th respectively.
The women's race was won solo by Jennifer Neenan (Newcastle West Longcourt Hotel). Niamh O’Dwyer (Black House Racing) led in a small chasing group for 2nd place, with Cathriona Lenihan (Newcastle West CC) in 3rd. The A4 race was won by James Connolly (O’Leary Stone Kanturk) from Jason Conboy (Galway Bay CC) and Desmond Flynn (The Chain Gang CC).
