Double delight for Dunamanagh’s Adam Ward

ADAM Ward enjoyed a weekend to remember by claiming a Tyrone club double on Saturday and Sunday.

The reigning Ulster road race champion earned an impressive solo triumph in the East Tyrone CC Grand Prix on Saturday and he then pipped former national champion, Darnell Moore to the line to win Sunday’s PJ Logan Cup, promoted by Island Wheelers CC.

The University of Ulster student wasn’t in the best shape ahead of the back-to-back races, having been involved in a nasty crash the week before.

“I had done a few weekend races but I had no real luck,” he explained. “I did Annaclone and managed to roll second in the first race of the year, but I know from previous seasons it takes me a few weeks to get into the swing of things again.

“And then, I was at the Des Hanlon the weekend before, which is the first proper National Series event. I knew I had legs but then, about two hours in, I came off on a descent and ended up in some barbed wire!

“My hand came off the bars so I couldn’t get to the brakes so I ended up in a barbed wire fence at about 40mph, so that was the end of my race!”

Despite having a cut leg and some ‘slight concussion’, Ward felt surprisingly good in the week leading up to last weekend’s races and with the East Tyrone course suiting him he was confident of success.

“I knew during the week I had decent legs and on Saturday as soon as the race started I had good legs and the course in East Tyrone suits me,” he added.

“It’s fast but the run-in is quite punchy, it’s a rolling road, and I had a bit of a plan that I was going to launch an attack with about a lap to go.

“When the last lap rolled around I decided to give it a lash and I knew if I could get clear I’d be able to keep the pressure on and thankfully I managed to keep clear.”

After that relatively comfortable victory over a top six that included Conor McCann, Shane Smyth, Nathan Mullen, Cathir Doyle and Angus Fyffe, Ward’s confidence remained ahead of Sunday’s PJ Logan Cup race.

The Island Wheelers event proved a much closer contest however, as he and the 2020 winner of the race, Darnell Moore, went toe-to-toe.

“I know from previous experience, including last summer, that I’m good for two days, I know I can do two races back to back, especially after the Tour d’Avenir which was 10 days!,” Ward added.

“Sometimes I even have better legs on the day after a race and today [Sunday] I knew I had good legs but it was hard today, it was hard from the start because we had a five minute handicap to close – two and a half to the A2s and two and a half to the A3s.

“But I knew straight away that I had good legs and we ended up catching the A2 and A3 groups, which had combined, after two or three laps of nine. And then Darnell and me were both looking at each other and we knew what was going to happen. There was a group clear of six A2s and we got away and got across to them and we rode with them for a lap of two.

“Then we looked at each other again and we knew we were going to push on ourselves and we smashed it through for a few laps and with a lap to go I tested his legs but you’re never going to ride away from a man as strong as Darnell.

“Thankfully when it came to the finish we went toe-to-toe and thankfully I managed to hold him off!”

Adam is now hoping to get selected for the Northern Ireland Commonwealth Games team this summer, when he will be competing in Spain with Team Smart Dry Girona Cycling City.

“I was hoping that maybe I’ll get the call for the Commonwealth Games team this year,” he admitted.

“Obviously there are a lot of strong riders in Northern Ireland so it’s up in the air yet.

“I’m hoping as Ulster road race champion it gives me a good chance because it’s one of those bucket list things that I really want to do.

“I’d be really be happy to represent Northern Ireland at the Commonwealth Games, that would be a real lifetime dream come true.”