Greg Swinand solos to victory on stage one of the Tour of Ulster today in Maghera (Photo: Marian Lamb, Cycling Ulster)
By Gerard Cromwell
Having continued his tradition of skipping the Easter stage races to spend time with his family, Greg Swinand made a big impression on his first stage race of the year today, soloing clear of a fragmented front group to claim stage one of the Tour of Ulster in Maghera.
“It was a weird kind of day,” said the UCD veteran afterwards.
“Even though we were working hard all day, we never opened a big gap. The pressure was on, because one minute it would be 50 seconds, then 30 seconds, then 45 seconds and we knew we couldn’t afford to mess around.”
Swinand and Art McManusa were one of five sets of teammates in the lead group of 12, which made working together a little bit easier for the escapees.
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“It was a good break because there were two of us (UCD), two Aqua Blues, two North Down guys, two Bikeworx guys and two of Paddy Clarke’s Liquidworx guys.
"I guess the Ulster guys were the ones who missed it and I heard afterwards that Marcus Christie was one of the guys driving the chase behind.
"There was a bit of hard riding in the break on the last two climbs but we never had the gap to attack each other and we just tried to keep ticking over until the last KOH.”
Here, John Mason (DID Dunboyne) took the polka-dot jersey of best climber by cresting his second climb of the day ahead of the group, but the ever-watchful Swinand wasn’t too far away, crossing the summit in third place on the wheel of Aqua Blue’s Sean Lacey.
“There’d been a little bit of jumping around and everybody was a bit tired,” Swinand said of his last minute decision to attack.
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“The last KOH was with about 5km or so to go. There was a little right turn, a drag and then a downhill. I could see guys hurting and I knew I had to go.
"I’ve been working on my time trial and once I got the gap I knew I was just 3km or 4km out, and tried to hold it. It was touch and go though. I didn’t think I had it until 500m to go.”
Swinand now finds himself leading the race by 12 seconds and the veteran’s national time trial champion finds himself rueing the fact that there is no race against the clock on this year’s route.
“It’s a pity for me because I would have liked to be able to bring my jersey out,” he says, rather than point out the fact that he would more than likely have widened his lead in the race if there had been a time trial this year.
With Anthony Walsh missing from their squad due to sickness this weekend, the UCD boys will have their work cut out to defend Swinand’s lead over the next two days, although the American born veteran is not unduly worried about the prospect.
“We’ll do our best. We only have five guys so we’ll take it one mile at a time, one day at a time. Between all of us, we’ll figure something out.”
UCD teammates Eoin Morton and Sean McKenna celebrate teammate Greg Swinand's stage win today. The duo will have a lot of work to do to defend the lead tomorrow. (Photo Marian Lamb - Cycling Ulster)
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