Paidi O'Brien leads Mike Storan to a Planet Tri 1-2 at the Munster Road Race Championships in Co Cork today (Photo: Pat Doherty)
By Brian Canty
Paidi O'Brien has silenced talk of injury possibly sidelining him from racing in the next few weeks; wining today’s Munster Road Race Championships in Whitechurch, Co Cork, in great style.
The Planet Tri star rider escaped with his teammate Mike Storan midway through today's 102 kilometre, six-lap, race before a huge crowd in the Cork town just outside the city. And he showed his class by taking the win on the drag to the finish.
O'Brien only resumed training on Friday after a nasty crash last weekend and on this form he will be one of the men to watch next weekend in Clonmel at the Suir Valley Three-Day.
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The race was an aggressive one from the drop of the flag and on a difficult day with showers, some twisty roads on a descent and an energy-sapping drag up to the finish, it was always going to be a wearing-down process.
That didn’t stop one of the star men from this year’s An Post Rás, Olan Barrett (Aquablue), going away on the first lap with Planet Tri man Mick Storan.
Olympic rower Cathal Moynihan (Tralee Manor West) made it three out front for about half the first lap. They were soon joined by Simon Ryan (Visit Nenagh-Team DMG) who is guesting for a club team in France for the summer.
That quarter didn’t get much leeway however, and at most had around 40 seconds before disaster struck Cathal Moynihan.
The Beijing Olympian suffered a mechanical and dropped out of the break and that seemed to hit hard the momentum of those up ahead.
Moynihan got back into the race following a wheel change from his father and was back in the bunch by the third lap but by that point a major shake-up had occurred up ahead.
One of the pre-race favourites, the heavily-marked Dermot Radford (Tipperary Wheelers) managed to escape the clutches of the peloton and he proceeded to ride across to those three still out front while he took with him O’Brien for company.
Another flurry of attacks followed behind, with one of the stars of the Junior Tour, Stephen Shanahan (Limerick CC) riding across to the break with fellow junior Sean Hahessy (Iverk Produce Carrick Wheelers) and Aquablue’s Keith Gater
That made it seven out front and they worked very well together for around a lap (lap 2-3), pulling out around a minute of a gap.
On lap four, O’Brien galloped away and took Storan with him at the base of the drag up to the finish, leaving five behind - Hahessy, Shanahan, Barrett, Radford and Gater.
Meanwhile, a six-man chase group had now formed behind which included, among others: Moynihan, Eddie Barry (Planet Tri), Mick Hennessy (Fermoy) and Brendan Cassidy (Killarney CC). That group quickly got to within 40 seconds of the group ahead, with the depleted peloton at around a minute at the halfway point.
The two groups out front merged but didn't work well together after leaders O'Brien and Storan, and the peloton was on them before long.
But before that, the two juniors Shanahan and Hahessy jumped away from the chase group and set off after Storan and O'Brien. And to their credit they stayed away to get third and fourth respectively after O'Brien had taken the flag up front from team mate Storan.
John McCarthy (Aquablue) led the bunch in for fifth while Eddie Barry claimed sixth.
Munster Road Rac Championships
Sunday July 28th in Whitechurch, Co Cork
A1 Podium
1st Paudi O’Brien – Planet Tri
2nd Mike Storan – Planet Tri
3rd Eddie Barry – Planet Tri
A1/A2/A3 Primes
Lap 1 Simon Ryan – EC Mayenne
Lap 2 Simon Ryan – EC Mayenne
Lap 3 Simon Ryan – EC Mayenne
Lap 4 Paudi O’Brien – Planet Tri
Lap 5 Paudi O’Brien – Planet Tri
A2 Podium
1st John McCarthy – Aqua Blue
2nd Michael Ahern – Dungarvan CC
3rd Stephen McGrath Fermoy CC
A3 Podium
1st Conor Hewwiebry – Iverk Carrick
2nd Peter Clendennen- Killorglin
3rd Jamie O’Shea – Killorglin
Junior Podium
1st Sean Hahessey - Iverk Carrick
2nd Stephen Shanahan – Limerick CC
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3rd David McCarthy - NRPT
A4 Podium
1st Paul Horan – Desmond SP
2nd Patrick Clifford – Killarney CC
3rd Patrick Aher – St Finbarrs CC
A4 Primes
Lap 1 Cian Leahy – Valley Wheelers
Lap 2 Cian Leahy – Valley Wheelers
Lap 3 Eoin O’Connell – Blarney CC
A4 Vets
1st John Colleran – Dolmen CC
2nd Marcus Finn – O’Leary Stone Kanturk
3rd Billy Reidy – Listowel
U16 Podium
1st Simon Twomey – Cork County CC
2nd Sean Yellverton – Limerick CC
3rd Kyle Crotty – Iverk Carrick
Prime – Simon Twomey – Cork County CC
U15 Podium
1st Dion McCarthy – Unattache
2nd Ruarri Dunne – Iverk Carrick
3rd Aaron Keary – Iverk Carrick
U14 Podium
1st Ronan Twomey – Cork County CC
2nd Dillion Corkery – O’Leary Stone Kanturk
3rd Tom Knight – O’Leary Stone Kanturk
Prime – Dillion Corkery – O’Leary Stone Kanturk
U13 Podium
1st Thomas Dore – O’Leary Stone Kanturk
2nd Patricia White – Tralee BC
3rd Jack McCarthy – Unattached
U12 Podium
1st Denis Murphy – O’Leary Stone Kanturk
2nd Cormac O’Brien - O’Leary Stone Kanturk
3rd Claude Mahony – Cork County CC
Prime - Fionn Desmond – Galtee Wheelers
U11 Gold
1st Fionn Desmond – Galtee Wheelers
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