A delighted and exhausted Damien Shaw really savours his win after a marathon effort on the Tour of Ulster today (Photo: Marian Lamb - Cycling Ulster)
By Gerard Cromwell
Having ridden away with the prestigious Shay Elliott Memorial in Bray last Sunday, Damien Shaw of Aqua Blue once again proved himself to be one of the strongest riders on the domestic scene when he soloed to victory on stage two of the Tour of Ulster in Maghera today.
Shaw’s last kilometre attack from a three man breakaway group however, was all the more impressive as the Mullingar man had already spent most of the stage out front with very little company.
“The first group formed fairly early, maybe after 5km or so,” he said of an early escape that also included Conor Murphy (Caldwell Cycles), Anthony Murray (Bikeworx) and national cyclo cross champion Roger Aiken (Kinning Cycles) among others.
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At the top of the first climb of the day at Banagher after 12km though, just Shaw and Murray remained out front. They went across the summit in that order before opening up a gap on the rest of the field.
“We kind of held a minute for a long time and then I think the field started to split up behind us,” he said.
Shaw took the first intermediate sprint of the day in Burnfoot ahead of Murray as teammate Bryan McCrystal made his way up to the lead duo.
“After Bryan came across, the pace upped and Murray was dropped,” said the eventual stage winner.
“Myself and Bryan rode together for about 30km or 40km then, until the main steep climb of the day at Bishops Gate (after 78km). The bunch started to close us down but I kept riding and went away myself.
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"I was hoping a group would come across to me but it didn’t and for a long time the gap was hovering between a minute and a half and two minutes. I was in two minds whether to sit up and go back but I just pressed on.”
Shaw crested the final climb at Glenshane Pass alone but was soon joined by McCrystal again, this time with Cycling Ulster’s Marcus Christie for company.
“Bryan came across to me just over the top. There wasn’t long to go after that, maybe seven or eight kilometres. The three of us worked together on the run in, until about a kilometre to go.
"I didn’t think I’d have much in the legs but with my teammate there, Marcus was probably in a hard place and didn’t know what to do. So I just jumped and stayed there to the end but it was a long day.”
He didn’t manage to wrest the yellow jersey off the shoulders of UCD’s Greg Swinand, despite his day-long efforts, but Shaw crossed the line four seconds clear of teammate McCrystal for the stage win, with Christie taking third.
“Yesterday was hard and when you’re very closely marked, it’s hard to do anything," said Shaw, with the Mullingar rider now very much a marked man any time he races.
"I knew I had good legs and I was just waiting on it to get harder today. That’s when you can do the damage. Greg is looking good and obviously has the knack of making the moves.
“Roger Aiken is also coming into form and is one to watch. But there are probably 30 guys within a minute of the jersey going into tomorrow.
"We have four riders (Lacey 4th, Fenlon 5th, Shaw 7th and McCrystal 8th) in the top eight, all within 30 seconds of the jersey.
"There were fireworks on the last stage here last year and we got the best out if it. Hopefully we can do the job tomorrow. We have a lot of options.”
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