Daring late attack carries Daly to A3 Irish road race title

_

Cormac Daly won the separate A3 national champions road race in Cong, Co Mayo. The Tralee Manor West iBike rider took the gold medal from Bernard English (SCOTT Orwell Wheelers) and Senan O’Dwyer of Limerick CC (Photo courtesy Jimmy McElroy)

By Brian Canty

Cormac Daly savoured his greatest moment in cycling today when he soloed to victory in the A3 National Road Race Championships in Cong, Co Mayo, today.

The 20 year-old Tralee man had around 15 seconds to spare on the reduced bunch behind which was led in by Bernard English (Scott Orwell Wheelers) and Senan O'Dwyer (Limerick CC).

The race was to-ing and fro-ing all day before a group of four eventually got away with about 40 kilometres to go in the 115-kilometre contest.

St Tiernan's and Western Lakes CC were two of the clubs represented and they managed to pull out a gap of over a minute.

However, a volley of attacks on the second last climb started to close the gap and they were back in the bunch with about seven kilometres remaining.

Sensing he needed to go, Daly jumped out of the bunch on the last two-kilometre drag some six kilometres out and he held a gap of around 15 seconds all the way to the line.

A reduced bunch sprint followed after a crash took out a number of riders behind.