Ward claims stunning stage win

DUNAMANAGH’S Ward family enjoyed a weekend to remember with father Peter and son Adam excelling at opposite ends of the country in two different sports.

While Dad was co-driving for Ryan Barrett in the three day Donegal International Rally, finishing a super third in the historic event, son Adam was making his mark in top level cycling.

The younger of the two Ward men went into the Rás Tailteann with high hopes after getting his season underway with stints in Spain, Holland and Denmark, but even in his wildest dreams he probably didn’t expect things to go quite as well.

The Ulster University student produced five days of excellent riding to win stage three, finish a stunning third overall and second in the under-23 standings, while also helping Team Ireland, which featured Rory Townsend (road captain), Archie Ryan, Paul-Antoine Hagan and Dean Harvey, to the overall team title.

“It was great!,” he beamed. “The third overall was a real bonus because going into the race a stage win was what I was aiming for but to end up on the podium at the end of the five days was great.

“It was definitely a good team out for the whole team with winning the international team classification.

“I did a good week of training the week before, so I thought I could do something in the Ras, but to do as well as I did was definitely something special because on stage one and stage two I wasn’t feeling myself.

“On stage one I did my best but I wasn’t feeling that great but whenever we were on the roll out for the third stage I just knew straight away I was on a good day.”

His win on Friday was one he’ll never forget in a hurry as it came on the longest stage of the week, the 172.1km journey from Newcastlewest to Lisdoonvarna, and he beat eventual overall winner, Diare Feeley, to the line in a thrilling sprint finish.
Feeley and Ward went clear with 25km of racing remaining and as they crossed the category 2 KOH on the infamous Corkscrew hill, they held a gap of one minute over six chasers. On the approach to Lisdoonvarna, Feeley continued to drive the break on for precious time with Ward kicking in the last 200m to take stage victory.

“It was kind of hectic at the start and a big group got away,” Ward explained.

“I was beside Rory [Ireland team-mate, Townsend] in the pelaton and I said to him ‘I think I can go across to that’ and he said ‘no problem’ and he set me up to bridge the gap and I put in a really hard five minutes of effort to get across.

“Then, I knew, with the course that it got real hard at around 140K so I decided to keep the matches until then.

“And when we got to that length, with about an hour left of the race, I sort of knew I had good legs and I attacked the breakway and Daire Feeley was the only man fit enough to come with me.

“So it was just me and him for the last hour of racing, with us just smashing it the whole way back but I didn’t quite believe that I’d won until I’d crossed the line.”

Rather than rest on his laurels after such a busy week, Ward will now turn his attentions to this week’s National Championships with the time trial today (Thursday), followed by the weekend’s road race.

“I’m hoping to get on the podium for the time trial, but with the road race it’s real hard to know how it will unfold,” he added.

“I think the form is there and if I have the legs then we can get up there on the steps somewhere, but it’s going to be a hard race because the course is hard.”