Adam Matthews (Banbridge CC) has taken the biggest win of his fledgling cycling career after going very long - with James Armstrong (VC Glendale) - at the Wallace Caldwell Memorial before holding off the C1s to get his hands in the air.
Having focused on mountain biking last year, Matthews dabbled on the road as an U16 and took some strong results. But after working hard over the winter, under the experienced coach Matt Teggart, his abilities are taking shape, as today's 50km+ breakaway and victory suggest.
He reached the chequered flag today with just over 30 seconds to spare on some of the best C1s in the country, telling stickybottle he was "pretty ecstatic" to win. Gareth O'Neill (Athlete Nutrition Coach HD) was 2nd, with road, cyclocross and mountain bike international Chris Dawson (Dawson Racing) rounding out the podium.
Advertisement
As a first-year junior, Matthews started the season as a C3 rider but has already amassed the points required to be promoted to C2; his win at the C3 race in Tour of Ards a notable result. That meant he lined out today in the C2 group in the combined C1-C2 handicapped main event promoted by Ballymena RC.
Just before the halfway point - in the four-lap, 105km race - Matthews got a modest gap coming out of a bend and decided to keep his effort going, soon opening a gap. Fellow junior, Armstrong, who is also impressing this year, jumped out of the group and got across to him, with that duo then knuckling down and committing to the task at hand.
On the final lap, on the main drag on the course into a headwind, Matthews managed to get away from Armstrong and was then able to solo all the way to the finish. He was hunted down by the best of the C1s, about eight of whom got across to the C2 group and went through it. But they just couldn't get up to Matthews, who went home with a fantastic victory.
"James is a really, really strong junior and when he got across to me we rode together for about 1½ laps," said Matthews. "We had about a 1½ minute gap on the C2 group after the first lap together and about 3½ minutes on the C1s."
After getting clear of Armstrong last time up the drag, Matthews said his gap was about 30 seconds going into the last downhill just before the finish. So he rode "as hard as I could and managed to win by something like 33 seconds".
Related News
"Into the headwind I was glancing back constantly, but when the car came up to me and told me the gap, it was just a case of head down and I just went as hard as I could," he said. "If they caught me, they caught me. But thankfully they didn't."
Having mainly focused on MTB last year as an U16, Matthews said the short and stop-start nature of the youth races didn't suit him. However, a bronze medal in the Ulster TT champs and a silver in the Ulster hill climb champs were proof he could move on a bike, as was a breakaway ride at the National Road Race Championships until a puncture took him out of that move.
Currently doing his first year of A Levels at Banbridge Academy, he said the longer distances in senior racing appeared to suit him better. Looking ahead, he will ride for Cycling Ulster at Dornan Rás Mumhan and was also hoping to race at the Junior Tour of Ireland and Junior Tour of Wales later in the season.
He said he was "kinda surprised" he had taken some good results on the road, mainly because he had no real history in the discipline as a youth rider.
"But, then again, I did a big amount of training over winter with my coach, Matty, and put in the hard work, so I'm happy. I came back from (a training camp in) Spain earlier this year and I think I gained a good bit from that."
Sat, April 12th | Wallace Caldwell Memorial
Randalstown, Co Antrim
Promoted by Ballymena Road Club
C1-C2 Race
- Adam Matthews Banbridge CC
- Gareth O Neill Athlete Nutrition Coach HD
- Christopher Dawson Dawson Racing
- Ciaran Maguire Dan Morrissey Pissei Cycling Team
- Matthew Teggart Banbridge CC
- Cian Keogh TEAM SKYLINE
- John Buller Banbridge CC
- Riley Smith Banbridge CC
- Odhran Doogan Team Caldwell Cycles
- Alan Bingham Inspired Cycling
