By Brian Canty
Dylan Foley (St Finbarr’s CC) has taken the biggest win of his career to date with a thrilling victory in the Charleville Park Hotel Two-Day this afternoon, Sunday.
The talented 16-year-old set himself up for the overall win with a scorching time-trial in this morning’s second stage, coming home six seconds ahead of Cork County CC rider Bryan Long and 12 seconds quicker than Dungarvan CC’s Mark Power.
That all made for a frenetic final stage this afternoon. Foley had the yellow jersey but the top seven on GC were within one minute of him, meaning he had to be vigilant to most attacks.
And if that wasn’t hard enough for the Irish junior, two of his team mates withdrew injured before the start, leaving just Richie Barry to assist him over the 80 kilometre final stage.
Advertisement
Barry, despite covering a spate of early attacks, then suffered the misfortune of a broken cleat midway through the stage leaving Foley to fend for himself up front with the day’s two climbs yet to come.
He crested those without too much difficulty but with 20 kilometres to go it was big GC threat Power who attacked and with him went Usher IRC rider Anthony O’Neill, another man inside the top 10 and with designs on the yellow jersey.
Power needed 13 seconds to win overall and with 15 kilometres remaining it looked like he would get it too, as the gap stretched to 40 seconds. Little wonder Foley began to panic.
With Bryan Long in the bunch only needing six seconds to win outright, and Foley’s Irish junior team-mate Thomas Fallon also in top form and looking poised, the race was up for grabs.
Cork County CC did all they could to wear down Foley with some strong riding on the front while a volley of attacks inside those frantic final 10 kilometres left the race wide open.
But Foley never panicked and instead tapped through a steady rhythm at the front, eventually helped by Cork County – whose focus had switched to catching the two up front to prevent Long slipping down the GC.
While the two leaders were being pegged back, a late assault from the bunch on the yellow jersey wasn’t beyond the bounds of possibility.
But Foley was unshakeable, and with Visit Nenagh DMG also helping at the front in the closing stages, as well as Galtee Wheelers, the gap to the breakaway men tumbled under the 20 second mark with five kilometres to go. Yet still the duo out front persisted.
With the gap continuing to fall and the two up front now in sight, the sprinters’ teams suddenly sensed a stage win was on the cards and swarmed to the front.
By that point, it was becoming apparent Foley was not going to be usurped and with such a ferocious pace being set on the front, Bryan Long’s chances of jumping the bunch and getting six seconds on Foley were also slim.
That did not stop a late effort from him, but Foley was onto it and he rolled over the line in the peloton just metres behind stage winner Mark Power. The Dungarvan man proved his class by barely holding on for the win as his breakaway companion O’Neill was just about overhauled by the head of bunch but still got 5th.
National junior champion Liam Corcoran (Castlebar CC) nipped in for second at the head of the peloton.
Foley cut a relieved figure at the finish.
“Yeah it’s great to get the first proper win of the year. I was third in Gorey, fifth in the Corkman, then there was the white jersey in Gorey as well but this is the biggest yet,” he beamed.
“I was talking to my coach Timmy Barry and the plan for the weekend was not to lose any time in the first stage. So I just got into the break there and made sure I didn’t show myself too early in the race. And then I said I’d try and put in a very good time trial and see where that got me for the afternoon stage and play it by ear then after that.”
“I only drove the TT course last night so I wasn’t sure of it. I knew by looking at it the first part of it was slightly downhill and the last few kilometres were the toughest. I just tried to get the cadence up and once I got that up, I tried to hold the speed and luckily it worked out.”
Related News
The final stage unfolded somewhat in Foley’s favour.
Though the first climb of Glenanaar was mooted to split the whole thing up, that failed to materialise and the only real attempt at getting away came from Bryan Long who drilled it on the descent and managed to get a gap. But that was negated on the road to Ballyorgan where the next big climb of the day lay in store.
There, the focus turned to Power who was strong early on in the stage.
Said Foley: “I knew Mark was strong. He was active in the first few kilometres and I knew he was going to have a go off it and when I saw him go with 20 kilometres to go I was worried. There was none of my team-mates around. Luckily Cork County came to the rescue and helped me out. They took some good turns.”
Foley ends his season on a high then and despite not being selected for the World Championships in Limburg at the end of the month, he was upbeat.
“I was happy to get selected for the Europeans. Cycling Ireland were great to give me that opportunity but it didn’t really go according to plan over there. I had a few falls and was just unlucky so I wasn’t too upset about not being selected for the World’s because I’ve next year.”
In the A4 race, former underage prodigy Barry Meade (O’Leary’s Stone Kanturk) took a brilliant overall win when he, along with Brendan Cassidy (Killarney CC), clipped off the front in sight of the line.
He managed to get a few seconds on the peloton and take the yellow jersey from Paul O’Connell (C4SC Hibernia) who looked like he had all but sewn up the win after winning this morning’s time trial.
We'll bring full stage and gc results when we get them.
Charleville Park Hotel Two-Day
A2/A3 race
Stage 1
1) T Fallon (Seven Springs)
2) 2 B Long (Cork County CC)
3) L Corcoran (Castlebar CC)
4) P O’Brien (Orwell Wheelers)
5) J Prendergast (Cunga CC)
6) G Robinson (Bray Wheelers)
7) M Power (Dungarvan CC)
Stage 2 TT
1) D Foley (St Finbarr’s CC)
2) B Long (Cork County CC)
3) M Rice (U/A)
4) M Power (Dungarvan CC)
5) T Fallon (Seven Springs)
6) V Gleeson (West Clare)
7) B Canty (Cork County CC)
Stage 3
1) M Power (Dungarvan CC)
2) L Corcoran (Castlebar CC)
3) B Griffin (Comeragh CC)
4) B Martin (Seven Springs)
5) A O’Neill (Usher IRC)
6) T Fallon (Seven Springs)
7) B Hart (Limerick CC)
8 P Bolger (Slaney CC)
Final Overall
1) D Foley (St Finbarr’s CC)
2) B Long (Cork County CC)
3) M Power (Dungarvan CC)
4) T Fallon (Seven Springs)
5) J Prendergast (Cunga CC)
6) M Rice (U/A)
7) A O’Neill (Usher IRC)
8 M Brookfield (UCD)
9) A Stanley (Slaney CC)
10) V Gleeson (West Clare CC)
Team prize: Cork County CC
A4 Race
Stage 1
1) B Meade (O’Leary’s Stone Kanturk)
2) D O’Connell (Slaney CC)
3) H Gallagher (Naas CC)
4) B O’Keeffe (Waterford racing CC)
5) M Vereker (St Tiernan’s)
6) E O’Connell (C4SC Hibernia)
Stage 2
1) P O’Connell (C4SC Hibernia)
2) G Robinson (Comeragh CC)
3) B Meade (Kanturk CC)
Stage 3
1) B Cassidy (Killarney CC)
2) B Meade (O’Leary’s Stone Kanturk)
3) A Brosnan (Dublin Wheelers)
4) A O’Halloran (Burren CC)
5) D O’Connell (Slaney CC)
6) P Bourgurous (U/A)
Final Overall
1) B Meade (O’Leary’s Stone Kanturk)
2) P O’Connell (C4SC Hibernia)
3) L Cullen (DID Dunboyne)
4) B Cassidy (Killarney CC)
5) H Gallagher (Naas CC)
6) M Vereker (St Tiernan’s)
7) D O’Connell (Slaney CC)
8 E O’Connell (C4SC Hibernia)
Team prize: Wexford wheelers.
Topics
