Timmy O'Regan hunting down Glenn Kinning last time up the climb; he would pass him at the top and ride off for silver (Photo: Toby Watson)
Timmy O’Regan took his best ever cyclocross result yesterday when he claimed a silver medal behind David Montgomery at the elite men’s National Championships in Swords, north Dublin.
The DID Dunboyne rider has only been riding ‘cross for a few years but has improved steadily every season.
And yesterday he edged out seasoned campaigner Glenn Kinning (Kinning Cycles) for the runner-up slot.
“If you’d said to me at the start of the day I’d get silver I’d have taken it,” a philosophical O’Regan said after.
“Especially because I wasn’t gridded. But in the end it didn’t matter. David won, I was second and neither of us were gridded.”
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O'Regan said he had panicked in previous years at the nationals. But the experience that told him to keep his cool paid off in spades (Photo: Toby Watson)
O’Regan knew he had ground to make up having to start so far back but he hatched a plan before the race to get back on terms with the front guys.
“The plan was always to stay near the ditch and if there was a crash I’d have an exit strategy.
“I heard the crash, got by it and just kept going.
"I got onto Glenn’s wheel on the finishing straight after the first lap and kept going from there.”
O'Regan was consistently strong through the whole race, whether on his bike, on his feet or powering into the headwind on what was a very cold day for racing (Photo: Toby Watson)
The race began to break up at that point, but O’Regan was still very much to the fore.
“On the third lap I switched bikes and I made a few mistakes trying to close the gaps,” he said of the daylight that opened between himself and the two leaders Montgomery and Kinning.
“And once I made those, I eased back a little and tried to save third place.
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“I lost a little confidence pushing on some of the corners but then near the end when I saw I was closing on Glenn I said ‘screw it, I’ll risk everything’ and within a lap I’d closed the gap.
A couple of mishaps did not throw O'Regan as they may have in previous years. He looked very smooth (Photo: Toby Watson)
“Going onto the second last lap I could see him coming backwards pretty quickly.
“And then on the last lap I just knew every corner I was catching him and taking chunks of time out of him.
“I caught him on the run-up and just put the hammer down,” he said in reference to the overtaking move he made on the climb.
“I was surprised I caught him, but he put in a massive effort up the starting straight into that strong headwind.
“And I was thinking ‘he might blow towards the end’ because it was a pretty hard headwind and he tore up that first section.
“But he was unlucky to blow; it’s probably the first time this year it's happened so I think he could have been a bit sick.
O'Regan's strength as a road rider paid off on some sections of the course, though it tested all of the 'cross skills of the field (Photo: Toby Watson)
“In previous years I’ve panicked in the nationals and taken too many risks into corners.
“I’ve crashed and panicked even more and crashed again so this year I said I’d take it handy.
“So once I was in second or third I said I’d hold back and keep everything for the last few laps.
“I crashed once today on an off-camber section and then I said I need to protect my lead so I just backed off a bit.”
It was a policy that paid off, with O’Regan having a bit of power in the bank when the battle for silver emerged with Kinning.
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