Hugh Mulhearne wins the Vets’ National Road Race Championships in Carlingford, Co Louth, this afternoon from Greg Swinand (Photo: Toby Watson)
By Brian Canty
In the end, the greater legs won out and few can have any quibbles about Hugh Mulhearne winning a rain-soaked National vets road race title in Carlingford, Co Louth this afternoon.
The Waterford native is a double track champion and is a powerhouse of a man and when it came down to it today, he showed he had the class as well.
But spare a thought for one of the most likeable and affable characters in Greg Swinand who, for the second year in a row, made all the right moves, but came up short within sight of the line.
Last year in Clonmel Swinand and Joe Fenlon lit up the race and for all but the last 500 metres Swinand had the race in his grasp before the former got the jump on him approaching the finish, and then to rub insult to injury, Martin O’Loughlin (Iverk produce Carrick Wheelers) took the runner-up slot.
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Today, as expected with such a star-studded field, the race was active right from the gun and on the opening lap a four-man group clipped off the front but didn’t get much leeway and a hungry bunch reeled them in before the start of lap two.
That capturing triggered the big move of the day almost immediately and happened when a whopping 12 riders jumped away in ones and twos and by the end of that second lap, and quickly gained a gap of 45 seconds.
In that group, were many of the pre-race favourites; Swinand, Mulhearne, Derek Joyce (Galway Bay CC), Fenlon (Aquablue), Cathal Smyth (Phoenix CC), a Newry rider , Peter Rimmer (Lakeside Wheelers, Mullingar), and one other from his club as well as half a dozen others.
That group worked very well together and when the rain began to pour down, the chase from the bunch behind all but ceased.
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By the halfway point the margin had extended to over a minute as a six-man group tried in vain to bridge.
With three laps to go, the attacks began pinging off the front of the break with the unnamed Newry rider particularly aggressive. But each time he was reeled in. Smyth, from phoenix suffered cruel luck when he punctured out of the break to leave 11 up front and sensing that was too many, Swinand shook things up.
With two laps to go the Usher IRC rider hammered it on the back stretch and despite being buffeted by the wind, managed to escape. Mulhearne went in pursuit and made it across as the nine behind stalled temporarily.
From an initial gap of six seconds on lap six, they pulled out the gap to 37 seconds as they took the bell, after which two tried to bridge.
But Mulhearne and Swinand weren’t having it and they worked well for the first half of that last lap.
Then the latter began to panic as taking Mulhearne to the line would have been an unwise move, given his track pedigree. So Swinand attacked again and again but couldn’t shake Mulhearne.
The gap began to tumble as the chasers were now in sight behind as they approached the last kilometre.
Sensing their lead slipping, Mulhearne went to the front and took up the sprint on the left hand gutter, giving Swinand no room to come up the inside.
And still he sat on inside the 500metre to go mark. Then Mulhearne made his bid for glory, hammering the pedals up the home stretch and taking it by half a bike length.
Derek Joyce rode superbly to get third and no doubt that will come as some compensation for his Rás that was ended prematurely last month.
