 Cassidy
takes bad weather in his stride
By Gerard Cromwell
Noel Gallagher of Oasis penned the line; 'Nobody
ever mentions the weather can make or break your day'. For Philip Cassidy of the
Cycleways team, the icy wind and freezing rain that gusted over the riders as
they made their way around the Ben McKenna memorial circuit in Balbriggan today
made his day a little easier than normal.
"Bad weather never helps anybody" said
Cassidy in the warmth of the Bracken Court Hotel after his first win of the 2001
season. "I just try and ignore it. I don't let it get to me. It got very
cold on the last lap, but when it gets that cold you do have a tendency to ride
a bit harder to try to keep warm, so it's advantageous in the end really.
"On the second last of five 12.5 mile laps,
Cassidy forged clear with Shane Baker of the Usher Insulations Irish Road Club
on the ascent of Balscadden Hill. "There were a lot of lads starting to
worry about the weather at that stage. They weren't riding as hard and the group
behind started to come back at us, so I decided it was a good time to attack. I
didn't know if we'd stay away but I figured if it all came back together it
would be even harder to get away." said the former double FBD Milk Ras
winner and national champion, who has changed teams for the first time ever this
season and now rides for his own team which is sponsored by his Cycleways bike
shop in Parnell St. Dublin. "It's nice to get a win this early for the
team" he says "Everything is starting to come together now, we just
got a new team car this week and we're just getting the logistics of everything
together and then it will be all systems go really.
"Despite his years of experience, which
includes two Olympic Games', Cassidy wasn't too confident nearing the finish.
"I'm never confident coming to a finish unless I'm on my own. I just don't
have a sprint." he says "I figured that we were both after riding hard
and that when it came to the last turn towards the finish, I was just going to
stick it in the 12 and give it everything to the line. I thought I had a
reasonable chance if Shane was tired." This is the first time the Meathman
has ridden the Ben McKenna memorial and he was delighted to win it. "I'm
very pleased. It means a lot to win it. Ben was one of our own really. He was
the one of the best cyclists to come from Meath and has won the Ras. I knew
going into the race that I had an outside chance. I wanted to win it, but I
didn't expect to. I just hoped to do well."
BAKER STILL SEARCHING FOR
WIN For Shane Baker of Usher Insulations IRC it's been a good start
to the season. Second place behind Phil Cassidy of Cycleways in the Ben McKenna
memorial adds to his tally of placings for 2001. Baker now has two seconds and
two thirds to his credit and is clearly a man in form. "I trained well over
the winter and due to the foot and mouth we had an extra month of training and
I've just come into form at the right time. This is my second, second place in
two weeks and I've had two thirds, so I'm just chasing a win. " he said
after the Balbriggan race.
"Today with the weather, I wasn't wrapped up
as well as I thought and I was cramping on the last lap. Cassidy was a lot
stronger than me, he was riding bigger gears. I thought I'd be used to the cold
by now, but when the wet gets into you......you just seize up. I couldn't turn
the big gears on the last lap." Baker attacked with Cassidy with two laps
to go and thought he may have gone too early. "I thought it was a bit
early, but as Phil said to me, it was better to be up there than back in the
bunch. The way the route was and how hard it was, they weren't really getting
anything back on us. We kind of kept a gap of 45 seconds to a minute all the
time, so it worked out well in the end."
Baker who works full-time as a plumber, manages to
fit in two days training in mid week to try and keep up with the full-time
cyclists. "In winter, the club was doing 80 or 90 mile spins on the
weekends, Saturday and Sunday . When there was no racing in March we just upped
the gears and trained a bit harder. I try to do about fifty or sixty miles on
Tuesday and Thursday evenings after work and I ride to and from work every day.
You need to be doing that to be in with a chance nowadays. Baker will continue
his search for the elusive win at Ras Mumhan this weekend and the Stamullen
Grand Prix the week after.
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