Bryan McCrystal, above, and Chris McGlinchey ripped it up on stage 2 of Kerry Group Rás Mumhan (Photo: Brendan Slattery)
Known as a power house, Bryan McCrystal has carved his own chapter into the history of Irish cycling as much for the way he rides as how often he wins.
And on stage 2 of Kerry Group Rás Mumhan on Saturday, McCrystal was at it again with one of his famous ‘Roy of the Rovers’ displays.
Having the missed the winning breakaway on yesterday’s opening stage into Killorglin the big man from Dundalk – a former pro footballer and the current Ironman national record holder – McCrystal was clearly out to make amends.
And make amends he did on the 144km trek starting and finishing in Kenmare.
He pulled clear with his ASEA-Wheelworx team mate Ali Macaulay and yellow jersey Chris McGlinchey (Irish Team) on a day when the field raced over the cat 1 Healy Pass.
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That trio were too strong for the rest of the early breakaway and went to war with each other in the closing stages for victory on the day to make their mark on the general classification.
Also in that early six man move with McCrystal, Macaulay and McGlinchey were Paddy Clarke, Robert-Jan Mol and Ruben Dorren.
McCrystal takes a fantastic win as McGlinchey (literally) buries his head to limit his losses in the background (Photo: Brendan Slattery)
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By the 70km remaining point, those six men had a gap of almost three minutes on the bunch with a five-man group in between.
But with that stage-winning gap established by those up front, it was Macaulay who attacked the breakaway first, with McCrystal then jumping across to him.
And to his great credit, McGlinchey showed why he is one of the hottest young properties in Irish cycling right now by dropping those he was with and getting across to McCrystal and Macaulay despite their best efforts to hold him off.
He made the junction at the cat 2 climb of Reananaree, with 93km completed.
And shortly after that climb when the time gaps came through a 10-rider chase group was almost 3 minutes back and the bunch even further in arrears.
And after the cat 2 County Bounds with 40km remaining the three leaders ploughed on, clearly not going to be caught.
Less than 10km later, the attacking up front started and a fantastic battle ensued.
Outnumbered by two ASEA-Wheelworx men in the leading trio, it was always going to be very hard for McGlinchey to deal with the handful presented by the combined engines of Macaulay and McCrystal.
And because Macaulay was in the breakaway with McGlinchey yesterday and so threatened him more overall, whenever the ASEA-Wheelworx men inevitably worked over the yellow jersey, McCrystal had the better chance of gaining his freedom.
And that’s how it came to pass; McCrystal pulling clear with just over 30km left to race and time trialling his way to win, with McGlinchey dropping Macaulay in polka dots leaving him third on the road on his own.
And while at one point McCrystal had about one minute on McGlinchey, the yellow jersey pegged him back all the way to the line and almost caught him.
McCrystal held on for a super win into Kenmare, with McGlinchey just behind and having gained huge amounts of time on everyone else in the race it will take something special to beat him now.
More to come.
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