Liam O'Brien (Fermoy CC) has retained his junior men's title at the National Cyclocross Championships in Co Louth today. The Cork teenager put in a dominant performance to confirm his standing as the best junior rider in the the country in the cyclocross discipline.
While the destination of the gold medal never looked in doubt today as soon as O'Brien went into a solo lead on the opening lap, there emerged an intense battle for the silver and bronze medals among a chasing group behind the leader.
In that group were: Joseph Mullen (Navan Road Club), national road race champion Oisin Ferrity (Island Wheelers) and Curtis Neill (Caldwell Cycles).
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After the the opening lap, O'Brien led by eight seconds from Neill, with Mullen and Ferrity riding together just two further seconds back.
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O'Brien added another 20 seconds or so to his advantage over the chasers on the second lap, with the gap growing by a further 10 seconds on the third lap.
The state of play at the end of that third, with just one passage of the McCrystal Track remaining, saw O'Brien leading by 40 seconds from Ferity and Mullen, with nothing to separate that duo battling all the way for silver and bronze. Meanwhile, Neill was about 10 to 15 seconds behind Ferrity and Mullen in 4th place.
On the final lap, O'Brien made no mistake to take gold again. And behind him, Mullen matched the leader for pace to pull and handful of seconds lead of Ferrity.
It meant Mullen claimed gold by 42 seconds from Mullen, with Ferrity claiming bronze just four seconds behind Mullen. Then came Neill in 4th; some 55 seconds down on the winner and only nine seconds off the bronze medal. Travis Harkness (VC Glendale) was 5th at 1:53.
More to come.
