East-West Weekend Success for Wheelers

Post date: Aug 11, 2014 8:27:13 PM

(By Steven Franzoni)

Another great weekend for the Lakeside Wheelers racing crew saw riders east and west of the country. In the east our youth guys headed to Kilmessan Co. meath for the Leinster Youth Champs. In the U14 Aaron Wade rode a great race to finish in 8th place in the bunch sprint. David Boyne got into a break in the U16 race and sprinted to 5th place, Conor Canton was unfortunate not to finish.

In the West the club fielded a mixed midland team of 6 riders in the Ballinrobe Two Day. Always a popular race with the Wheelers the club brought in Keith Finn (Port Laoise) and Shane Quinn (Longford CRC) to ride along side Peter Rimmer, Stuart Cox, Billy Cunnane and Eoghan Kevilahan. The first day brought mixed fortunes with Eoghan suffering mechanical problems on the grueling first stage. However the day ended with the rest safely in the bunch and Keith up the road in a break away.

Day two started with a 5km hill climb time trial up a category one climb called Lallys Mountain (used in the Rás). All rode well but of particular note was the ascension of Keith Finn into the A2 category leaders blue jersey. A very talented young man on the climbs having recently won the Midlands League hill climb up the Cut in the Slieve Blooms. His good fortunate meant a hard day in the saddle for everyone else as a jersey needs defending. The rest of the team acquitted themselves to the task with great vigor, at one point the front of the peleton was a wash of yellow, chasing down an aggressive attack by Keith's nearest rival.

Needless to say the task was completed and the jersey was won outright. It was a great example of team work and very impressive to see from the follow car behind.

Also in attendance was 'The Machine' Damien Shaw. I know for a fact him signing on caused fear among our riders let alone the rest of the field. Damien rode with his usual aggression to take second on stage one then the yellow jersey after winning the hill climb on stage two. No stranger to Ballinrobe jerseys I seem to recall he won all of them a few years ago. This year however the jersey turned into a poison chalice as attack after attack saw his main contenders get away on stage three. With no team members to offer support and the Wheelers already minding Keith's A2 jersey the Yellow jersey slowly slipped out of grasp and Damian slipped back to a still fine 5th position in the end.

Western Lakes CC also organised an A4 race today over the same lumpy course as the the main stage 3. Davey Nolan and Sonja O'Mahony rode a great race to finish in the main bunch after a substantial amount of the field were dropped. Sonja picked up first lady home.

Special thanks should go to Thomas Clogher from TC Racing for minding the A4 race and supplying a spare wheel to David Nolan after a puncture. David Nolan drove support for the team on stage one Saturday and stage two Sunday morning before handing the director sportif role to me for Sunday PM. I must be reaching bike racing retirement because I always seem to be following races in a car at the moment under the watchful eye of master Franzoni (Dylan).

The Lakeside Wheelers squad who were in action in Ballinrobe at the weekend.