Cork cyclists to the fore at National Road Cycling Championship in Limerick
Cork cyclist Darragh O'Mahony has made remarkable progress since taking up the sport at the age of 16. Picture: Stephen McMahon/SPORTSFILE
CORK riders completed yet another medal haul, at the National Road Cycling Championships, held in county Limerick recently.
Darragh O’Mahony won bronze in Saturday’s elite men’s road race.
The Rockchapel native, a graduate of O’Leary Stone Kanturk CC, improved on last year’s fifth, to take third this time around.
Racing in the colours of SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling, O’ Mahony’s late solo move in the 155km event sealed his place on the podium, alongside overall winner, Ben Healy and runner-up, Nicholas Roche.
The Kanturk club won the junior men’s team prize, at Knockaderry. Liam Crowley, Ruairi Murphy, Kian O Connor, Arnaud Dumoulin and Daniel Yon Hin claimed what was a second bronze of the weekend for Kanturk CC.
In the time trial races, their clubmate, Tom Moriarty, won bronze in Thursday’s junior contest. The Kerryman pedalled the 22.4km route in a time of 29’51’’.
Cork County CC rider Scott Drummond landed bronze in the Paracycling C1-C5 Solo event, crossing the line in 18’45’, while Blarney’s Shane O’Connell was ninth in the men’s elite time trial, a race also won by Ben Healy.
Strata3-VeloRevolution’s Grace Young (formerly of De Ronde De Van Cork) claimed silver, in Sunday’s 82km women’s masters’ event.
The Cork rider was sixth in the elite contest and just four seconds behind the winner, Lara Gillespie of UCD.
Eve McCrystal, Young’s teammate, was the winner of the elite women’s time trial, earlier in the week. McCrystal placed second in the road race and was the first home in the masters’ category.
Young, McCrystal and Becky Woods won gold for Strata3-VeloRevolution in the women’s team event. The club, which is under the guidance of Cork’s Aidan Crowley, were also victorious in the elite men’s team contest.
Ben Healy was arguably the star of the weekend, winning the men’s road race in dominant style, and also landing the u23 time trial in mighty impressive fashion.
The 20 year old Trinity Racing man actually clocked the fastest time of the day for the men’s and u23 races, on Thursday, crossing the line in 25’50.
Healy’s grandparents hail from the Cork-Waterford region.
A winner of a stage of the Tour de l’Avenir in 2019, he recently won a stage of the Ronde de l‘Isard.
The successor to 2019 Irish national road champion, Sam Bennett, Healy could prove to be Irish cycling’s next star.
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