Three in-a-row for Brammeier

Matt Brammeier yesterday became the first Irish rider to win three national road race titles in-a-row when he soloed clear of a three man breakaway in the final 2km to retain his shamrock jersey of Irish champion in Clonmel.

Liverpool-born Brammeier once again proved too canny for the rest of the peloton as he followed move after move until he found himself with just Tour de France-bound Nicolas Roche (Ag2r), London bound track rider Martyn Irvine (RTS Racing) and young Dubliner Philip Lavery (Node4 Giordana) with 40 of the 167km race to go.

“It’s been the same the last couple of years,” said Brammeier of his victory. “You have to follow everything and hope you can survive to the last lap. If you don’t go with every break then you’re in a position where you have to chase all day and that’s not good.”

At one point that’s exactly where Roche found himself. The Ag2r pro was a minute and 10 seconds down on an escape group of 13 on only the second lap and despite setting off in pursuit with three others, found himself no closer to the leaders a lap later.

“I really lost the race on those few laps,” admitted Roche afterwards. “It took me a long time to get across to the leaders and I paid for it in the end. I’m not too disappointed with silver because an hour into the race I thought I might be watching the finish drinking coffee at the side of the road.”

When Roche did get across to the baker’s dozen up front on the main climb on lap four of nine, he simply went to the front and attacked them, whittling the group down to just six. With two laps to go, the leaders were reduced to just Roche, Brammeier and Lavery as Irvine got dropped on the penultimate climb only to reverse the positions by clawing his way back and attacking on the descent.

“When I caught them I was thinking, they’re going to fart about now, and that’s not me, so I hit them again and kept going,” said Irvine. “I got 20 seconds and was thinking it’s only a 20km time trial. But those guys can just skip over the climbs and I knew I’d struggle on the last lap and the hill just got me in the end.”

As Irvine was dropped for the last time on the final climb, Lavery, Roche and Brammeier were busy trying to get rid of each other. Once again though, it was Brammeier who stole the limelight, going clear with 2km to go and time trialling his way to the line five seconds clear of Roche.

Brammeier is currently appealing a decision to omit him from the Irish team at the Olympic road race and put one finger over his lips to ‘shut some people up’ who have recently criticised the Belgian-based WorldTour rider.

“It was a huge blow when I got that email telling me I wasn’t on the team. It’s no secret that I was born in England so it would be extra special that it’s in London. But you know, it’s the Olympic Games and I’m really proud to ride in the Irish jersey and that’s why this race means so much to me every year. I came here to prove a point and I’ve done that. Fingers crossed something good will come out of the appeal and I’ll get to the Olympics but I’m not really too hopeful.”