Swirydowicz takes wet and windy Kathleen O’Sullivan Memorial

Adam Swirydowicz beats Gerard Dunne and Donal Daly in the gallop for victory

Adam Swirydowicz of the promoting club Swords CC has taken victory in the Kathleen O’Sullivan Memorial just outside Ballyboughal in north Co Dublin.

He took the win last night, Wednesday, from a small group of limit riders after the field split to pieces in wet and windy conditions on a circuit that featured the climb of the Nags Head each lap.

With the 60km event open to A3 and A4 riders only, the decision was taken to give the A4s a generous five-minute handicap. Those riders were clearly very keen to take full advantage of that gap and combined well from the opening kilometres.

Going up the climb for the first of three passages, the pressure was clearly on in the front group as a number of riders got dropped. When the pursuing A3 riders passed the bottom section of the climb, the gap had come down by just ten seconds to 4:50.

Coming off the climb and onto the flatter, albeit still lumpy, roads the A4 riders continued to press on very hard to such an extent that their group split into three or four smaller groups. When they hit the climb for the second time their gap had actually gone out slightly, to 4:55, and it was not looking like the A3s chasing behind were going to make any serious headway at all.

Coming down off the climb after the second ascent, the pace in the lead group of A4s appeared to ease a little, with some of the riders who had been dropped earlier getting back on terms. However, that slight easing up did little to diminish the lead those riders had held on the A3s since the start of the race.

The A4s still had over four minutes on the A3 scratch riders as they went onto the climb for the third and final time. That lead was a big enough margin to guarantee that the winner would come from the limit group.

With the heavens having opened and lashed the riders during the final part of the race, it was a small group that made it to the finish to contest the gallop for victory, with Adam Swirydowicz (Swords CC) leading them home by around a length.

Kathleen O’Sullivan Memorial – 60kms Swords CC

1st Adam Swirydowicz (Swords CC)
2nd Gerard Dunne (Clonard CC)
3rd Donal Daly (Garda CC)
4th Alan Cullen (Park Wheelers)
5th Ken Hoare (Usher IRC)
6th Patrick Santini (Orwell Wheelers)
7th Joe Coleman (Swords CC)
8th Damian Creighton (Blanch Wheelers)

1st unplaced A3 Dave O'Connor (Park Wheelers)
2nd unplaced A3 Rory Farrell (Lucan CRC)
3rd unplaced A3 Eoin Morton (UCD CC)
4th unplaced A3 Hugh McMahon (DID Dunboyne)
5th unplaced A3 Damian Crowe (Dublin Wheelers CC)
6th unplaced A3 David O'Neill (Team WORC)

KOH Damian Creighton (Blanch Wheelers)