Having been one of the most consistent juniors in the country last season, and also taken some wins when the opportunities presented, Dean Harvey has scored his biggest ever road victory today in Limerick.
The VC Glendale teenager was best in the junior race at the National Road Series in Knockaderry after making the winning breakaway and then proving by far the strongest in the final sprint to the line.
Odhran Doogan of Caldwell Cycles was 2nd today while
national junior road race champion Ronan O’Connor (Orwell Wheelers) rounded out
the podium; both of them in the winning breakaway.
That winning escape group was a very strong one, coming
as it did on an undulating course, and also feature Patrick O’Loughlin (Carrick
Wheelers), Jamie Meehan (VC Glendale) and Niall McLoughlin (Westport Covey
Wheelers. Meehan was 4th, McLoughlin 5th and O’Loughlin 6th.
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Today's winner Harvey topped the Irish junior rankings last year when he was incredibly consistent, riding against the elites, through the full span of the pandemic-interrupted 2020 season.
Harvey took two wins last year - in the Nutts Corner Series and at the Stagg Cycles Lucan GP – but his victory today was a cut above.
And now the 18-year-old from Belfast - who is a very talented cyclocross and MTB rider - takes an early lead in the junior men’s National Road Series, with two more rounds to come in the months ahead.
Harvey said he did a lot of attacking in today’s 85.5km
race, over five laps of an undulating 17.1km circuit.
He added at one point he felt he was going to pay for
those efforts and get dropped from the breakaway, though he gathered himself
and stayed with the leaders before finishing so strongly.
More to come.
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