Sean Lacey goes from gun to take Rás Luimni with aggressive ride from breakaway

By Brian Canty

Sean Lacey notched up his second win in three weeks as he stormed to an outstanding victory at Rás Luimní on a brutally tough day yesterday, Sunday, in Limerick.

The Aquablue rider went from the drop of the flag with his team-mate Olan Barrett and they pulled out a small gap over a large A1/A2 bunch behind.

Barry Twohig (Blarney CC) saw the move as a potentially dangerous pairing up front and jumped across, while John Mannix (Killarney CC) and Mark Nugent (Waterford Racing Club) did likewise to form the day’s one and only breakaway.

Richard Hooton (Visit Nenagh) did make the selection, but his presence there was a brief one, perhaps paying for a strong ride the day before in Clonard.

The riders had to contend with horrendous crosswinds, temperatures that skirted just above freezing and sleet. But Lacey made light of the elements as he clipped away on the last lap and had well over a minute on Barrett in the end, who came second. Twohig rounded out the podium.

The latter - last year’s winner of the Suir Valley Three-Day - said the day was as hard as he’s had in a while, and having just five riders in the break, on such a cold day, made it very difficult indeed.

The race was four laps of a 32 kilometre circuit, with one drag of note up towards the start/finish area. After the first lap the five-man breakaway built up a lead of just over a minute.

The bunch seemed to switch off behind because by the halfway point that lead had swelled to over two minutes and all hopes of the race regrouping faded when the quintet had almost three and a half minutes taking the bell for the final lap.

But then the action occurred up front. Lacey saw his chance and attacked and wasn’t seen again, while the remaining four – with the exception of Barrett - rode in a futile effort to reel him in.

And despite having such a healthy buffer with less than a quarter of the race to go, things took a turn for the worse when John Mannix started to cramp, Nugent stopped working, and Barrett, fearful of being caught by the bunch, attacked.