Mícheal Fitzgerald continues comeback with Blarney crit victory reminiscent of heyday

Mícheal Fitzgerald, seen here in action in the An Post Rás, has taken victory at the Blarney Criterium (Photo: Brendan Slattery)

Fresh from something of a comeback ride in the An Post Rás last week where he took three county rider awards, Mícheal Fitzgerald (Visitnenagh.ie) appears to have carried that form away from the race, taking a sprint win in Blarney this evening.

Fitzgerald’s win, his first of the season, from a bunch sprint in the Blarney criterium was reminiscent of many of his victories before his prolonged break from racing. The fact he beat Paidi O’Brien (Plant Tri) into second place underlined the quality of his kick this evening.

The race was marred by a crash around 15 minutes into the action of 45 minutes and five laps. With Bryan Long (Unattached), Matt Slattery (Killarney) and Robert Forrest (Blarney CC) all falling at high speed, the race was stopped for a period and then restarted with a neutralised lap.

There was plenty of action from the gun and when John McCarthy (Aquablue) took the first prime he opened what looked like a significant gap over the field of 60 riders. However, while he pulled out around a 15 second lead on the tight 1.2km course, he was not joined by any other riders coming across to help his cause and in the end was reabsorbed.

Olan Barrett (Aquablue) was one of the county men breakaway heroes towards the back end of the Rás and he too appears to have come out of that race in good condition, putting in a number of really hard attacks this evening that looked like they put many riders under pressure.

Ryan O’Donovan also gave a very good account of himself, with the Cork County man taking the third prime and putting in a number of strong attacks.

The Planet Tri duo of Barry Meade and Paidi O’Brien showed their quality with a series of moves clearly aimed at breaking up the race. However, while they looked very strong, none of those efforts had the desired effect and it came down to a bunch sprint with Fitzgerald prevailing.

Blarney Criterium

1. Mícheal Fitzgerald (Visitnenagh.ie)

2. Paidi O’Brien (Planet Tri)