Denis Dunworth won the Irish national hill climb championships on Saturday and he's already looking ahead to next season (Photo: Maura Lynch Moriarty)
By Brian Canty
Having only decided to ride the event at the last minute, Denis Dunworth won the National Hill Climb Championships in Cork on Saturday.
The Moda Kingdom Endurance Sports man had 15 seconds to spare on runner-up John Lee of Trim CC and said it was a nice way to bring a difficult season to a close.
“I wasn’t actually going to do it because I stopped training about four weeks ago," he explained.
“I had finished up for the year but someone said it was on in Cork so I said I’d do it and I entered it, but I definitely didn’t expect to win it.
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“I know the course might not have suited some people and it probably turned them off but it wasn’t easy; the first 4k was technical and the last 2k was straight up.
“It suited me perfectly, even though I nearly came off a couple of times!
“If it was raining it would have been mayhem because it was on an old farm road and there were twists and turns and 12 per cent gradients and the same downhill; so it took a bit of concentration.”
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The Tralee man felt he perhaps went too hard on the flatter section but still had the strength to put time into his rivals on the latter two kilometres where the gradient reached over 20 per cent in parts.
Overall, he was happy with his year considering the injuries he’s had to deal with.
“It was decent, I was eighth in the national TT champs and won the Kerry county champs but I missed a lot of the year with injury so that was frustrating.
“I had to pull out of Rás Mumhan because of an Achilles injury and I was off the bike for three weeks so that set me back alright, but I came around again.
“The Achilles has always plagued me and it was one of the main reasons I stopped cycling when I was younger, I couldn’t get it right.
“But this last while it’s been good and it hasn’t been that good for a long time so hopefully now we can drive on for next year.
“I’ll probably take a week or two off and build back up again for next year.”
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