Blarney's Shane O'Connell attacks to win Sliabh Luachra Clasaicí

*Shane O'Connell of Blarney CC took victory in yesterday's Sliabh Luachra Clasaicí main event (File photo by Sean Rowe)*

Former international rower Shane O’Connell has take his
first victory at A1 level; attacking from a breakaway yesterday to take a solo
win in the Sliabh Luachra Clasaicí.

The main event was raced over seven laps of an undulating
15.7km circuit and eventual winner O’Connell (Blarney Cycling Club) was part of
a six-man breakaway group for most of the race.

He attacked on the second lap and got clear with a small
group, though the bunch began chasing them down.

However, when top rider Conor Kissane (Killarney CC) began getting across to the move up the main climb on the course O’Connell
waited until he had closed the gap and attacked again.

This time Kissane
went with him along with Conor Coleman (Panduit Carrick Wheelers), Jason
Kenny (UCD Cycling Club), Bryan Geary (Panduit Carrick Wheelers) and Dermot Radford (Club Rothaiochta Na Sionainne); all combining to make a very strong group
up front.

They settled into sharing the workload up front and
pulled out a gap of about one minute, which they maintained for a long time,
until it stretched out and reached two minutes.

That meant that barring incident the top six placings on
the day were going to the breakaway men, though the order of the placings was
all to play for.

*The breakaway in the main event led by Coleman and O'Connell (Photo: Maura Lynch Moriarty)*

O’Connell lit it up very early as the race neared its end
game; attacking with over 20km remaining and riding flat out up the climb on
the penultimate lap.

After he was over the top he had established what looked
like a decisive gap and from that point he put his time trial skills into
action and rode hard all the way to the line; his advantage over the chasers
reaching one minute.

After O’Connell took an impressive solo win, Kenny proved
best of the other breakaway men, taking 2nd place from Radford.

Then came Kissane, Geary and Coleman, in that order. Mark
Shannon (Burren CC) was best of the rest as he claimed 7th place with Richard
Maes (Strata 3-VeloRevolution) rounding out the top eight and Eoin Allen
(Blarney CC) taking the A2 category.

*International cyclist and triathlete Maeve Gallagher (green and white jersey) at the front of the bunch in the A3-Womens race (Photo: Maura Lynch Moriarty)*

In the A3-Womens race the result panned out in a similar
way to the main event; a breakaway getting clear on the second lap of six and
surviving all the way.

On the line it came down to a sprint between the men in
the escape group with junior rider Liam Crowley from the prolific O’Leary Stone Kanturk stable taking victory.

John Downey (Bandon Cycling Club) was 2nd and Jordan Luke
(Newcastle West) completed the podium with the evergreen Martin
O’Loughlin (Panduit Carrick
Wheelers) in 4th.