Jack Conroy shows his delight with a big win at the Bobby Power Memorial in Co Waterford (Photo: Sean Rowe)
Jack Conroy has done it the hard way; plying his trade in the domestic bunch before venturing out to Belgium during the past couple of seasons – a lone ranger, riding in Bray Wheelers colours - in a bid to improve as a rider. Now, having joined the Velo Performance U23 Development Team, the hard work is paying off.
The 21-year-old from Co Wicklow, who was competing at the Tour of Rhodes (UCI 2.2) last week, won the Bobby Power Memorial in Co Waterford today, St Patrick’s Day, in dominant fashion. He took the initiative very early in the contest, and again deep into the race, to secure his biggest win to date, leaving very strong riders in his wake.
Run over five laps of the 20km circuit, from Clonea Power, the heavens opened on the riders in the headline race at the Carrick Wheelers promotion, though that did not deter the early attackers.
Advertisement
And one of those was first-year U23 Luca Holmes, a Velo Performance team mate of eventual winner Conroy. Holmes, who represented Ireland on the track as a junior the last two years, got away very soon after the start.
A number of attacks were launched from the bunch after him and Conroy latched onto one of those. That brought about a change at the front, with the small group Holmes was in being recaptured and then replaced by another breakaway.
Incredibly, though the riders were barely halfway around the opening lap, that move stuck. The riders in it quickly knuckled down, sharing the work and opening a big gap on the peloton behind. The breakaway soon began getting time gaps of 50 seconds.
In that move with Conroy were: junior riders Darragh Byrne and Hugh Og Mulhearne (both AS Villemur Cyclisme), Matthew Walls (APS Pro Cycling by Team Cadence Cyclery), Paul Kennedy (Burren CC), Mark McGarry and Ciaran Maguire (both Dan Morrissey Pissei) and Rory Condon (Zappi Racing Team).
They continued to work through much of the remainder of the race, though the cooperation began to drop, and attacking commenced, on the penultimate lap. Coming into the final climb on that second last lap, the cooperation completely fell away.
Related News
And it was very early into the final lap when Conroy made his move. After the group went up the final drag to the line, and down the descent, Conroy seized the day. About 1-2km after the finish line, he went to the back of the group, sent big move up the right and was gone.
Though he put the head down, there was some action behind on the final lap. Evan Keane of Pinergy Orwell was one of the many fancied riders caught out by the early move. However, he managed to bridge across to the breakaway on the final lap, with Philip O'Connor (Burren CC) making similar moves behind him late in the day.
Though Keane got across to the breakaway solo, Conroy was already long gone. He rode the final 18km solo and won it well in the end. The breakaway group chasing him attacked each other coming in the road, and split as a result.
Impressive Mulhearne, who was ranked top junior rider in France for a time earlier this season, emerged best of those late exchanges. He was in the company of last year's Junior Tour of Ireland winner Walls and Condon.
Mulhearne and Walls scrapped it out for 2nd and 3rd, with Mulhearne getting the verdict and Walls rounding out the podium. Condon was just a few seconds back, in 4th place on the day.
There was another, larger, gap then back to the others from the original breakaway. Kennedy was next home, solo, in 5th then team mates McGarry and Maguire, 6th and 7th, beating Keane in the uphill sprint.
Junior rider Byrne was next, a few seconds back in 9th, followed by O'Connor, who took 10th just ahead of a Bryan McCrystal (Bear Cycling), before a chasing group sprinted in.
In the C2 race, McCrystal's son, Rian McCrystal (Cannibal B Victorious) took an impressive win. The 16-year-old finished solo just ahead of Andrew Connolly (Dungarvan Cycling Club) and Oliver O'Shaughnessy (Leinster).
In the C3 race, Fionn Desmond (Mountain Bike Club Cork) took a solo win, as he did at the Lacey Cup on the first Sunday of the season. He topped the podium from Benjamin Bergin (Lucan Cycling Road Club) and Daithi Killeen (Kilcullen Cycling Club Murphy Geospatial).
