UCD clean up at Bogman Two Day taking all stages and final yellow

The Boss Man: UCD's Colm Cassidy putting in a strong time trial performance at the Bogman Two-day to take overall victory (Photo: Pawel Sadowski – Shutterstills.com)

By Gerard Cromwell

The UCD team dominated proceedings at the Bogman Tw0-Day in Tullycross, Co Galway, this weekend; taking all three stages and going home with the final yellow jersey.

While Sean McKenna bookended the weekend with victory on stages one and three, it was Colm Cassidy who stormed into the race lead with victory on the stage two time trial.

Both McKenna and Cassidy were in the four-man winning breakaway on the opening day and having opened a two minute gap on the rest of the field it was always likely the overall winner would come from this group.

Sean McKenna wins the closing stage 3 just ahead of the bunch; bookending his weekend with two victories (Photo: Pawel Sadowski – Shutterstills.com)

McKenna took Saturday's opener from Keith Gater after pulling clear with the Aquablue man but beating him by two seconds on the line.

That left Cassidy to take 3rd place on the stage, some 14 seconds back; with junior rider Daire Feeley of Donamon Dynamos, who has been in great from since the very start of the season, coming in another two seconds back in 4th.

Gater's team mate Robin Kelly was next in; taking 5th on the day exactly two minutes after the stage winner McKenna and with the rest of the field strung out even further back the road.

In this morning's 8km stage 2 time trial, it was Cassidy who proved fastest, perhaps not surprising given he is the best time trial rider on the home scene and missed the elite national title by just one second in June.

Daire Feeley has had an amazing season and was in the stage 1 escape; seen here up the road alone on the concluding stage 3 (Photo: Pawel Sadowski – Shutterstills.com)

He saw off team mate Ian Richardson by just under 9 seconds; Richardson having represented Ireland against the watch earlier this season at the World University Championships.

Chris Troy of Castlebar CC was next, taking third place some 18 seconds behind Cassidy. After the Mayo man, there was a big gap to 4th, with Barry Meade (Unattached) filling that spot some 41 seconds down on Cassidy.

Second best of the four man breakaway from the opening stage was Gater; in 5th place and 41 seconds off Cassidy's pace. Another man from the decisive escape, Feeley was 8th some 45 seconds down and just one second off veteran Padraig Marrey of promoting club Western Lakes CC in 7th.

The yellow jersey of Sean McKenna could only manage 10th on the day, relinquishing 47 seconds to the flying Cassidy, who took yellow into the final road stage this afternoon.

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Robin Kelly distances the main field and goes in pursuit of the winning escape on Saturday's opening stage (Photo: Pawel Sadowski – Shutterstills.com)

Once Cassidy opened a commanding lead at the top of the general standings after his time trial victory however, his UCD teammates Richardson, Joseph Breheny and McKenna worked hard to peg back a two minute handicap on today's final stage that saw junior rider Feeley become virtual leader on the road in the early kilometres.

The tough weather conditions and strong crosswinds played into the UCD squad's hands and they split the peloton on an exposed stretch of road with 15km to go.

From there, they controlled proceedings perfectly. And with Cassidy's yellow jersey in no danger; they set up McKenna for his second win of the weekend ahead of the unattached Meade and Darragh Carter of Omagh.

Cassidy took overall victory by 28 seconds from Aquablue's Gater, with double stage winner McKenna third at 31 seconds.

Cassidy leads the early breakaway on stage 1 from eventual stage winner McKenna and another UCD man Richardson third in line just ahead of Gater before the move was reduced in number (Photo: Pawel Sadowski – Shutterstills.com)