And then it "sort of fell apart a bit"…. Well no, not quite.
Dean Harvey, the stand-out junior on the domestic scene last year, stepped up today for a truly senior performance. He placed 4th in the combined elite and U23 road race - winning U23 gold - at the National Road Championships in Kanturk in his first season as an U23 and having just turned 19 years old.
Last year he won repeatedly and topped the Cycling Ireland junior rankings. He collected victories in the National Road Series in Knockaderry and then won at the Tour of the Mournes.
In June he went back to Limerick to win the A3-Junior Newcastle West Stage Race; taking the race lead with the stage 1 TT win and then winning again the next day, in yellow and while leading the Irish junior team.
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There followed selection for the Irish junior road race team for the Worlds in Belgium and the Europeans in Italy before collecting silver in the junior road race at the National Road Championships - behind then French-based hitter Darren Rafferty.
Harvey moved into the cyclocross campaign immediately the 2021 road race campaign was done, taking 4th in the elite race at the National Cyclocross Championships. He booked his place on the Irish team for the U23 event at the World Cyclocross Championships in the US.
So far this year - his first in the U23-elite ranks - he has won the Shay Elliott Memorial – on his own with a fine climbing display to the finish line. There have been wins too in the Annaclone GP, Ras Maigheo, the Fit Studio NI Kirkstown Series and the Eddie Crory Memorial as well as top 10 finishes on all stages at Rás Mumhan on the way to 4th overall.
Then he was selected for the national team for Flèche du Sud – taking 7th after a breakaway ride on the final stage – before moving on to a king of the mountains classification win, again on the national team, at Rás Tailteann.
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Today in the elite and U23 combined road race at the National Road Race Championships Harvey put in arguably the best ride of his career to date. He went in the early move with eventual winner Rory Townsend (WiV SunGod), silver medal man Cormac Mcgeough (Wildlife Generation) and John Buller (AC Bisontine).
While he was eventually distanced in the closing stages he kept his shape, was collected by the chasing group and won the sprint – against Darren Rafferty (Axeon Hagens Berman) – for the U23 gold medal.
It was a reverse of last year’s 1-2 in the junior road race at nationals and represents confirmation, if needed, that Harvey's star is the ascendency. While impressive as a junior last year - if overshadowed by the phenomenal Rafferty - Harvey is like a different athlete this season.
His new status was in evidence today with such a strong performance from the front - in a 163km, near four-hour, race mixing with top Continental and World Tour riders at the front.
A slightly reluctant interviewee at the finish today, he explain how he put his result together.
“It was a tough race. I was in the breakaway pretty much all day. It was grim weather so it was good to get the result,” he said.
“On the first climb, it was just sort of wearing the race down and then after the second climb, me, Rory Townsend, John Buller and the others got away and then Dunbar came across and that was pretty much it until the circuits.
“And then it sort of fell apart a bit. But the race was still hard and then I got dropped to the group behind. And then Darren (Rafferty) and me were racing for the U23 title, pretty much.” Harvey added the Rás Tailteann had proven very good preparation for today’s championships.
