"Going for a solo attack for 40km wasn't the wisest; but I got the gap and drove it"

Getting clear on his own 40km from the finish of a 60km race did not deter Robin Kelly today, with the Aquablue rider driving it home to win the Ned Flanagan Memorial (Photo: www.blackumbrella.ie)

By Brian Canty

Robin Kelly has said he was “thrilled” to open his account for 2014 with a very strong solo victory in today’s season-opening Ned Flanagan Memorial in Monasterevin, Co Kildare.

The Aquablue rider made the long trek up from his home in Waterford for an event he won in 2012. And it proved a worthwhile day out, as he demolished the field in some style.

Attacking relentlessly from the gun - despite four hours training yesterday - Kelly said he had “superb” legs and after getting into a few early moves, he eventually broke the elastic after around 20 kilometres and never looked back, pulling off a 40km solo winning escape.

“I’m really over the moon,” he told stickybottle after his win.

“I really didn’t expect to win because there was a decent bunch there today and I only had teammate Joe Fenlon for support. I just knew I felt good this week, and though I did four hours yesterday I felt very good today. I had superb legs, actually.”

His decision to go for it alone just 20km into the 60km race and then having the legs to make it all the way certainly suggest he is in great condition.

“I wasn’t sure if it was the wisest thing to be out front alone but when I looked back and saw the bunch had stalled I knew I had done the right thing. I started to get time gaps then and before long I was over a minute, then 1:20 and it stayed like that for most of the race.

“Then I was told there was a seven-man group after forming but they didn’t make too much inroads - that’s not being cocky. I wasn’t sure who was in the group; I just kept going to the line. It was absolutely brilliant to win the first one of 2014.

"It's good too for the sponsors. We have people like Fondriest supplying the bikes so it's important to get a win in early from that point of view as well.”

His early season plan is still very much trained on the Rás in May. Some races before that, he says, will sometimes have to be sacrificed to accumulate the miles for that eight-day showpiece event.

Now running the Waterford Cycle Centre bike shop - which he co-owns with Rolf Power - and having recently become a father, Kelly has more demands on his time now than before.

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“I didn’t have a great year last year at all and struggled early on but this year I’ve done a good winter and done some great training.

“It’s not easy running a business and having kids too but I’ve been lucky to be able to get away for a week to Spain and I did some really good training there and came out of it well. One of the biggest things for me is getting the weight down. I know I’m not a small fella but with the Rás in mind, I think it will be crucial.”

Speaking of the Rás, Kelly said he wasn’t making any predictions but did stress that getting on the podium remains a goal. And not as a county rider.

“I think I can do better than that. The Rás, for me anyway, has gotten easier the last couple of times. I’ve done it four times now I think and the first two were just plain suffering. But the last two I’ve been sniffing around a few moves and managed to get away in groups a couple of times.

“I think, if it is to happen for me, I’ll need to get over a final climb that whittles the peloton down to a group of 20 or more and maybe from a group like that I can do something.

“Ciarán Power coming back this year really highlighted it to me and gave me great motivation that it can be done. We spoke earlier in the year and made a commitment to get the weight down.

“We’re kind of having this battle to see who can lose the most weight. We started the challenge on January 2nd and so far it’s going well. But the Rás is a long way off yet and there’s a lot of racing to be done before then.

“But I won’t be racing every Sunday. I’ll need to take breaks because I’m fresh now and I want to stay that way and racing every Sunday makes that hard. We’ll go to Rás Mumhan and the Tour of Ulster but the goal there will be more to help one of the lads win again, like Damian Shaw or Sean Lacey or Bryan McCrytsal.”