Adam Armstrong puts the hammer down and puts those behind him under pressure during the Spires GP (Photo: Andrew Glendinning - Source Studios)
By Brian Canty
Adam Armstrong said his win on Saturday was a “monkey off the back” after a number of near misses in the opening races of the season.
The ASEA-Wheelworx man was 3rd in the John Moore Memorial a week ago and runner-up to Eoin Morton (UCD CC) in the Phoenix GP before that so understandably he was a happy man after claiming the Spires GP yesterday.
“It was good to get one on the cards finally, it’s been a while,” he said. “It’s a monkey off the back for me.
“I said at the start of the year that the big thing for me was getting the belief back that I could win. Once you have the belief it makes it a wee bit easier.
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“I’ve been making mistakes in the first few races where I should have won but didn’t… although I’ve had the ability to win.”
Yesterday Armstrong started with the A1 group a significant five minutes behind the A3 bunch.
But after 20 of the 80 kilometres he was back on level terms when a selection of A1 and A2 men stormed across.
“I don’t think they ever got organised up front,” he said of the limit men. “That’s why we caught them earlier than we should have.
“About 10 of us made contact so it was down to around 50 in the front and it took a while to whittle down after that,” he explained.
On the fourth lap of six a group of three went away and in it were David Hamilton (North Down CC), Kevin Lynch (Newry Wheelers) and one other rider.
Armstrong decided to wait until the bunch tired before making his attack to bridge and when he did, nobody was able to go with him.
“I waited for half a lap there was a head-crosswind and I attacked and rode across.
“I got across quickly and straight away we started riding, which was the right thing to do.”
Indeed, with a strong chase group behind, Armstrong didn’t want those back the road coming back up.
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And through his hard riding, the four up front were whittled down to two; himself and Hamilton.
And that’s how it remained for the rest of the race, until it came to the final kilometre where Armstrong proved too strong for Hamilton on the slightly uphill drag to the line.
All photos thanks to Source Studios
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A clearly delighted Adam Armstrong takes what may well prove to be the first of many wins this season.
Angus Fyffe takes the sprint for 3rd in the main event from Aaron Swan. Des Woods is just behind and took 5th.
Tim Burns of North Down CC in a photo he'll cherish for a long time; taking a great win in the A4 event just clear of the flying bunch headed by Damien McCamphill of Dunloy CC from Mark Maguire of Castlereagh CC.
North Down's Hamilton leads his breakaway companion Armstrong of ASEA-Wheelworx.
The podium in the main event; smiles all round.
And the top three in the A4 race also looked happy with their morning's work; nice one!
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