Bryan McCrystal leads home Mark Dowling at the end of a very wet and tough stage on the Suir Valley Three Day. McCrystal was not concerned about losing out on victory, saying there is a long way to go (Photo: Dave Coleman - Dc Images)
By Brian Canty
Brian McCrystal went agonisingly close to completing a unique feat today when he finished a strong second place to Dillon Byrne on the opening day of the Suir Valley Three-Day.
The Aquablue man has won stages of both the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan and the Tour of Ulster and would have been in a unique club had he won today to complete the treble.
But in the end, the big Dundalk man had no answer to Byrne’s finishing speed in the uphill gallop for the line in Cahir.
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“We got away coming in towards the line, he attacked and I went after him and took it up with about a kilometre to go and just rode hard,” said McCrystal.
“I wasn’t sure what type of rider he was; was he a sprinter or whatever. But he just came around me and fair play to him, he was very strong today.”
That duo left Mark Dowling (DID Dunboyne) and Colm Cassidy (UCD CC) in the closing kilometres and though they only took a handful of seconds, it could prove crucial come Monday. McCrystal, however, dismissed his general classification ambitions.
“I had no real GC aspirations this weekend, maybe it’d be better to go for stage wins, but second place is okay to a man like him after being in the break all day. The conditions were awful as well so it was nice to be out front for most of the day.”
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McCrystal will wear the green jersey tomorrow, and despite dismissing his overall hopes he has a very good chance of winning the race outright now (Photo: www.blackumbrella.ie)
McCrystal, who has been one of the stars of the domestic scene for the last two seasons, kept his powder dry in the early part of the stage. He followed the moves until the race settled down but when he saw what he thought was the right escape, he was straight over to it.
“I saw the group was a good one; most of the teams were there except Ryan Sherlock’s team. So I went across to it and the group worked well.
“UCD were strong and the Champion System guys were really strong so it was no surprise that we stayed away I suppose.
“The gap initially was around a minute but that doubled by 20k to go and I knew we were staying away then. A few lads got dropped out of the break but we were still going strong and were always going to stay away.
“We heard there was a group coming across but they had too much to do. It’s no bad thing not having won, we’re in a good position with the team and there’s a lot to play for yet.”
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