Hawkins grabs double weekend victory at hard fought Cycleways Cup in Navan

Peter Hawkins (IG Sigma Sport) taking the Navan Avonmore Cycleways Cup (Photo © Georgie Francis)

Peter Hawkins (IG Sigma Sport) has made it two wins from two in Navan, Co Meath, today taking the Navan Avonmore Cycleways Cup just 24 hours after claiming solo victory in the John Moore Memorial in Belfast.

Hawkins won today ahead of Connor Murphy (Eurocycles) and last weekend’s winner in Tralee Sean Lacey (Dan Morrissey-Speedy Spokes) in a three-up sprint after a hard day’s racing.

Hawkins told stickybottle that he was active from the gun but on the last lap it was Murphy who did most of the damage, putting himself and Lacey under pressure on the final climb.

“I was definitely pretty tired at that stage because I had been riding all day in the wind,” he said of the combined A1/A2 three-lap race.

“But when we got over the last climb there was just the three of us left from the lead group. We kept the pressure on the whole way in the road to make sure we got the podium places because we were getting time checks of less than a minute to the group behind.”

“In the end Connor led it out. I had a serious job trying to get around him but I did it. It was great to win after winning yesterday. I’ve obviously only started with the new team so I think it’s important to make a good impression. I’ll be riding a lot in Europe this year so when I race at home I need to ride hard in the races.”

“I’m definitely in very good form for this time of year and I’m probably close to my best form ever,” said the 26-year-old who has just signed for his UK-based team after several seasons in Belgium.

“In the past, during the winter I worked part time and I haven’t done that this year so I think that has helped. I also started using a power meter to train with in the last while, so I think that is part of it as well.”

Hawkins said he got clear on the first lap with a small group that included Sean Lacey, Shane Baker, Greg Swinard and others, though they were caught before the end of the lap. He then got clear again in another group that featured Lacey again, Sean Halpin, Derek Finnegan and John Dempsey.

He said the group rode very hard during the second lap and that Dempsey lost his place. Finnegan then had the misfortune to puncture. Hawkins said as the bunch behind closed the gap to within 30 seconds, Halpin sat up and waited.

This left Hawkins and Lacey out front alone. They kept riding and were soon joined by others who got across, including Robin Kelly, Paul Mulligan, Connor Murphy and several other riders.

On the final lap Murphy went hard up the climbs, with himself Hawkins and Lacey dropping the others to share the spoils. Ryan Sherlock was best of the rest in fourth, with Colm Bracken showing he is still well able to do the business against the best taking fifth place.

In the A3 race, Liam Blanchfield of Bray Wheelers emerged the winner while in the separate A4 race Eoin Morton of UCD took victory following his successful campaign in the recently concluded ‘Cycleways Inter Varsity League’.

See full results below.