May Bank Holiday Racing Roundup

Post date: May 05, 2014 9:56:33 AM

(By Billy Cunnane)

On Thursday 1st May Tullamore CTC hosted round 2 of the Midland League in Clara. A 13km lap to be completed three times awaited all the riders. There was a great turn out of Wheelers across all categories. First race off on the evening was the A/B race. The B group containing 21 riders got a 2 minute advantage on the chasing A group which contained 20 riders. From the off the B group got organised and worked well together and in doing so they managed to stay away from the chasing A group. The finish came down to a bunch sprint with Tosh Kiernan 6th, Eoghan Kevlihan 7th and Joe Carroll 8th.

The next race off was the C/D race. The D group containing 10 riders got a 5 min advantage on the chasing C group of 30 riders. There was a breakaway of 6 riders from the D group and they stayed away to take the top placings. The C group caught four of the remaining D group on the second lap. The finish came down to a bunch sprint but we had no Wheelers in the top ten. David Nolan was unfortunate to get pipped on the line and finished 11th. Well done to all. The next Midland League report will be on Round 3 which is taking place in Dysart on Thursday 8th May starting at 7pm. Minimum of a club competition licence is required at sign on.

Weekend Race Report

It was a busy weekend on the racing front with Michelle O'Halloran in the UK for the Bedford 3 day and Damien Shaw at the Tour of Ulster. Michelle was selected onto the 5 strong Leinster team after great results in open racing over the last 6 months. The team put in a strong performance on Stage 1 which was a 55km road race and all finished in the bunch on the same time as the stage winner. Stage 2 was a team TT over 10km and they posted a time of 9.40 which left them 7th overall. On stage 3 which was a 80km road race Leinster rider Melanie Spath finished 2nd after getting into a breakaway of 9 riders, with the remainder of the team finishing closely behind. At the Tour of Ulster former Wheeler Damien Shaw now riding with the AquaBlue team put in an epic ride to win Stage 2 and in doing so got the points and climbers jersey. As this report was going to press there was still 1 day to go in each event and a full report will follow in next weeks notes.

Sprint Finish in The Midland League CD race