Chris McGlinchey has won the Des Hanlon Memorial in Co Carlow today, with an epic solo breakaway of about 70km. He held off a chasing group containing some quality riders who got him back to within about 30 seconds on the line.
McGlinchey, riding for Spectra Wiggle p/b Vitus this year, initially got clear in a three-man move with about 100km to go. But he soon attacked that group and got clear alone. He then rode the remainder of the race solo to win.
It was the biggest victory of the season for the 27-year-old, who earlier this year became the first rider to represent Ireland at the UCI Cycling Esports World Championships.
McGlinchey made the first breakaway today with two strong riders; Joel Luke (23) of UCD Cycling Club and former race winner Mark Dowling (35) of All human-VeloRevolution.
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However, the eventual winner was clearly on an amazing day today and when he sensed the two riders he was with were perhaps not going as well as he expected, he took the decision to attack them from a long way out.
The Des Hanlon, which is regarded as one of the hardest races of the year, was the final round of the Cycling Ireland National Road Series, led by Daire Feeley (All human-VeloRevolution) going into today's race.
And though Feeley, a 24-year-old who has previously ridden at Continental level, was heavily marked today, he still managed to wrap up the overall series victory; the icing on the cake at the end of a very prolific season for him.
Feeley was in a chasing group today that was bearing down on McGlinchey in the finale. And though the lone leader survived for a strong victory, Feeley took the sprint for 2nd place and that was more than enough to seal series victory for 2021.
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Also in that chasing group with Feeley was young Trinity Racing rider Matthew Devins (19), who took 3rd place. He just ahead of fellow U23 international Liam Curley (21) of Spellman Dublin Port, who was 4th.
“It was a long day… we went on the climb just before the laps so we still had 100k to go,” race winner McGlinchey said of first getting clear with Luke and Dowling.
McGlinchey added that once the three of them got clear
and built a gap he felt his two breakaway companions were “struggling a bit”.
“I think I attacked them with maybe 70k to go, so I’d 70
lonely kilometres on my own but I just dug deep. It was a tailwind up most of
the climbs so I just buried it on the climbs and tried to recover on the
descents.
“It was a tough start and then I just buried it. I know
(Daire) Feeley and a couple of the other guys were on my tail in the last 10
kilometres so it was tough to dig deep in that last 10km because I didn’t have
much left.
“I was really happy to take the win. The Des Hanlon is a
pretty prestigious race, it’s one of the most prestigious of the year so I’m
delighted to take it,” he said.
McGlinchey added he was also very happy he was in good form coming up to next weekend’s National Road Championships - a event where he took silver back in 2017 in Wexford behind winner Ryan Mullen.
More to come.
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