Duane Delaney Memorial

It’s nice to get your first win of the season. It does wonders for your confidence! The race, hosted by Finglas Ravens, was run over six laps of the Boot Inn circuit. We had a handicap so there was no attacking at all, and we were actually very well organised thanks to Sean Bracken who let his voice be heard if anyone was sitting on for too long. The only jumping around was for the primes. After three laps Sean jumped away for one of the primes, he got a good gap. I got greedy so I decided to try and catch him to take the prime myself. Sean took the prime, I had a gap from the group and Sean sat up and waved to me to keep riding up to him. I made it up to him and saw we had a nice little gap so we decided to give it a go. I didn’t think we would stay away, but Sean did, so we kept going. As Sean won the previous prime he told me to just take the next one he said he wouldn’t contest the sprint because he didn’t want to upset the rhythm. So I took the prime now we only had two laps to go and Sean said ‘we have a chance`. The wind was terrible around the back of the circuit and sometimes it felt as if we weren’t moving at all. Both of us done our fair share of work and there was no messing. As we went on to the last lap I said to Sean to leave the attacking as late as possible because our advantage was not too big. I started to believe I was going to win, I just thought I had to hold him to the line and I would have it no problem! When we took the last corner at the round about I was on Sean’s wheel. He attacked out of the corner and got a small gap, I started to worry because it was taking a while to close the gap, and it hurt! I thought my legs would burst. I’m sure every rider knows exactly what I’m talking about. I was on his wheel and I knew I was going to win! I know Sean, and he is no sprinter, but I still didn’t lead it out. I was going to take no risks. With about 150 metres to go I kicked and came around him fairly easy with plenty of time to celebrate. I got great coverage from IrishCycling.com and I went into the weekend with great confidence. I wanted to win a race really badly and thought that this win would stop me wanting it, but when you get one you get hooked!! And you want another win even more.