Woods wins back to back under 16 Road Race titles
Jack Woods has been in a rich vein of form
Carlow cyclist, Jack Woods, completed a rare double when he won back to back under 16 National Road Race titles in Kilmacthomas recently. Hosted by the Dungarvan Cycling Club, the Carlow RCC rider went in to the event with a bit to prove to both himself and his rivals.
The winner, who trains seven days a week around the roads of Carlow, acknowledged what it meant to him.
“Absolutely delighted. Two in a row hasn’t been done too many times. It is the main goal at the start of the season. It is the one everybody wants to win,” he said as he reflected on what he had achieved.
Last year, he won a sprint finish when he came out of the pack but there was those who suggested he was only a sprinter and that was all This time he put that talk to bed when he got into a two-man break at the start of the second lap. The event was 62 kilometres in length with three laps of just over 20 kilometres in distance.
He spent 23kms up the road in a two-man break but were caught with just 15 kilometres of the race to go. It was a case of tucking in with the group and hoping he would get another chance. The Presentation College student now knew that it would take a huge effort to win. On the other hand, he figured his main rivals would conclude that he was quite tired and would not be expecting too much of him. Woods dug deep.
“I had a feeling that was probably it. I went into recovery mode. I sat in the middle of the group and figured how it was going to play out. There was no pressure on me to do much. They knew I had been up the road. I let everything play out in front of me,” the double national champion in waiting explained.
With the finishing line fast approaching it was a game of cat and mouse with the main protagonists.
“The group was snaking from one side of the road to the other. When they went to one side, I went on the other. It worked out for me. When it came down to a sprint, I was fairly happy. It worked out perfectly in the end,” said the jubilant winner.
Even though Jack won by nearly 10 lengths, he was given a time 1 hour 32 minutes and 7 seconds which was the same as the runner-up George Sevastopulo and 13 other riders.
The two-times national champion trains seven days a week and has been over the France and Belgium for races. He has also been in talks with teams from both countries.
On the road in Belgium he has had two races where he was second behind the Belgian national champion and seventh in another race. He is trained by Kevin McCambridge and has been given financial support by fellow club member, John O’Shea who has his own accountancy firm in Carlow. Aidan Kelly of Global Rail and Seamus Scully of ARC Management Systems have also sponsored the young sportsman.
