"I got a kicking in Navan with so many Aqua Blue's there, but I’m tipping away nicely now"

Conor Murphy adds the McCann Cup in Omagh on Sunday to his win at the Phoenix Grand Prix two weeks ago, getting the 2014 season off to a great start for his new Caldwell Cycles club (Photo: Marian Lamb - Cycling Ulster)

By Gerard Cromwell

Conor Murphy took his second race win of the season on Sunday when he led home a three man escape group to claim the McCann Cup in Omagh.

With the scratch group having overcome a two minute handicap to the A2s relatively quickly, there were plenty of attacks jumping clear of the large peloton in the early laps.

Nothing stuck however, until Murphy’s Caldwell Cycles teammate Thomas Martin and North Pole’s Marc Buchanan went clear in the final 15km, with Murphy making his way across about 5km later on the flat circuit.

“There were lots of attacks and it split a bit on the last lap but it wasn’t really until Tommy got up the road with Buchanan that anything stuck," Murphy told stickybottle.

"I just clipped off in the last five or six miles and got across to them. Tommy sat on the front for the last three kilometres and led me out for the gallop and it worked out well in the finish.”

Having moved from the now defunct Eurocycles squad in winter, Murphy has had a good start to the season, with two wins a fourth and a fifth place for the Omagh based Caldwell Cycles team.

“I was fourth in Annaclone at the start of the year and won the Phoenix Grand Prix the next day,” he says.

“I got a bit of a kicking in Navan with so many Aquablue’s in the break," he added of the Cycleways Cup the weekend before last; a race he won last year.

"They have great numbers and there was only so many of them you could cover, but I’m tipping away nicely. The club is going very well, first class. You couldn’t ask for anything else. It’s the second time I’ve won the McCann Cup and to do it on Caldwell Cycles’ home ground gave the club a good boost too.”

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