A weekend of racing around Kilmessan

A weekend of racing around Kilmessan awaited us, with the same circuit being in action both days.

On Saturday it was a short 50 minute race, so it was going to be fast from the gun. While usually with a handicapped race, there is a degree of cooperation at the beginning, there was attacks from the start with Gareth O’Neill and Matthew Walls being the main protagonists. With these short races, you have to take a more proactive approach with there usually being a smaller bunch, and when a gap is formed, it is very difficult to bring back. Midway through a group got away with Ruairi Byrne, Matthew Walls and two others. With Sean being left to hang on the front, Gareth countered over the top at twice the speed. Knowing this could be the race gone, Sean jumped immediately and did two minutes as hard as he could, dangling just behind the group but never making the catch. After that he had to jump onto group behind coming with speed with it eventually all coming together. This killed his legs, and a lap later with his legs still recovering a similar group got up the road with the 3 big names, + James Mackey. This looked like it was race over for everyone behind, with tired legs and the group having such strong names and a gap that expanded up to 10s. But there was always someone in the peloton who wanted to jump in a move, try to bridge across, or close down the next attack. This held the gap stable, with the sirens sounding in the peloton and every C1 jumping at some stage. Suddenly there was a pileup in the middle of the peloton, with an overzealous C2 barging through a gap that wasn’t there, on a straight section of road, akin to a scene out of WWE. This caused groups to be all over the road, with Sean having to make his way through the pileup and solo bridge to the next group on the road. The favorites group had slowed down which led to a regroupment of most of the C1s. Gareth went for a flyer with 2k to go, and Sean jumped across to him, but it was far from pretty with him seeing stars at this point, all over the bike. Suddenly he had gone from a situation where the break was gone to being in a group of 5 into the last km of Walls, O’Neill, Byrne and a C2. The group stalled badly into the last km and the C1 group behind came over the top with speed, boxing the rest of the guys in apart from Walls who had attacked off the front of the group just as we had caught them. 7th place in the end for Sean who had the legs but didn’t have the best race tactically.

The following day, Orwell had a stronger contingent, with Padraig, Evan, Luke, Joe and Sean again pinning on their numbers. Orwell made sure they were represented in any dangerous groups that got up the road. Eventually a dangerous group detached itself which Padraig was represented in. This group quickly caught the C2s, but were hanging out in front with once again, there being a large cohort of riders who missed it and were trying to close it. Orwell kept the group moving as well, with Joe and Evan jumping with moves across. Eventually Joe and Sean got away from the group and swiftly got across to the combined lead C1s, C2 and C3 peloton which on a narrow circuit was always going to be sketchy and messy. They went straight to the front of the group as the C1s were trying to reform a break and get away from the rest of the peloton. Luke and Evan swiftly joined the peloton but were caught too far back. Joe attacked, got brought back and Sean countered, being the last one to get into the break of the day. Being behind a couple C2s who were unwilling to pull, he was able to having a passenger seat ride with the excuse of having many riders behind also coming into play. Eventually the gap went up to a minute and the whole group started rolling through and off which set a status quo until the last lap. The lads behind were busy making sure the gap didn’t explode too big in case catastrophe struck for Sean, and making sure any moves that got away they were represented in, displaying a masterclass in controlling a race from the peloton. In the last lap, moves started flying off the front. Sean just followed, until they got onto a windy section where he anticipated and went up the road solo. Walls and O’Neill quickly got across as the break had splintered to pieces with people all across the road. Eventually it all came back together but that had sapped the energy of most of the break. The next few km was all about waiting for the right moment, the right move, and just following until that happened. Walls, who had been so active in the race, was absent from the front, tailgunning which only meant one thing, he was going for a flyer. Sean kept waiting for him to go and when he did he was ready to jump straight onto him. They nearly had to go off road as O’Neill swung right, but they were gone. After Sean’s first pull Matthew put in a nasty seated acceleration, and Sean pushing 600w basically in the wheel, was ridden off the wheel, similar to Van Aert Simmons in the Tour 2022 stage 6 breakaway. They had built up a sizeable gap so Sean rode it in for second, another step forward towards getting closer to that elusive victory, taking confidence into the final few races of the season. Behind Evan did the business and won the bunch sprint behind the break.

Claire Diffley had super race going back to back after winning on Saturday night. The count down is on as she gets ready for the Ras.

Cycling race photos Ireland