It was a battle of the big guns at the end of Silver Pail GP in Fermoy, Co Cork today; junior champion Tom Moriarty going head to head with leading Irish A1 Conor Hennebry.
And while Hennebry and his Dan
Morrissey-MIG-Pactimo squad had numbers in the breakaway, young Moriarty was a
match for them.
He made the split when the breakaway broke up and when he found himself up against senior internationals Hennebry and Conor Kissane (Killarney CC) he took it in his stride.
At the finish Moriarty rode a perfect
sprint, coming off Hennebry’s wheel and getting him on the line after a fierce
two-up gallop.
Kissane was unfortunate in that he led
out the sprint and was taken out of it by cramp as he surged for the finish
line.
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But there was no taking away from Moriarty’s achievement. Seeing off Hennebry is a result in itself, but doing it as a first-year junior is another level.
The main event was run off over ten laps
of a 10km course and while there was frantic attacking from the start nothing
stuck initially.
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However, about 15km into the race the
elastic snapped when a breakaway comprised of seven engines, and no passengers,
went clear.
In that group were the eventual top
three, along with U23 international Dillon Corkery (BioRacer-DHL-FRS), Keith
Gator (Waterford RC) and Hennebry’s team mates Matthew Sparrow and Sean
Hahessy.
They worked away for about two laps and
then the Dan Morrissey men began attacking in a bid to split the group.
With about 40km to go the eventual top
three forged clear of the other four, with the three leaders then cooperating
in sharing the workload until the finish.
While Kissane led it out he cramped and Hennebry kicked with about 200 metres to go.
Moriarty waited for a second or two before moving off Hennebry’s wheel and just getting him on the line.
It was a very strong result of the O’Leary Stone Kanturk 16-year-old and one of two excellent results for the club in Fermoy today.
Not only did first-year junior Moriarty
win the A1-A2 race but first-year U16 rider David Shine won the A3-Junior race
in a sprint from a group.
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