Good Results In Loughrea

Post date: Mar 23, 2015 4:58:44 PM

(By Philip Wade)

Saturday morning training continued successfully this week. We had two groups out but with an easy spin in mind as six of our youth squad planned on Racing Sunday near Loughrea for the Seven Springs Grand Prix . Tosh and Ronan took the older group , Damien and David took the younger ones. All did a great job of helping the youths understand what kind of session they should cover the day before a race to have the legs feeling fresh on the day. Tosh and Ronan had the guys do easy with a few rev out sprints and then some nice easy riding afterwards. It is looking like the adults need to up the training so we can continue to go out with the youths, either that or the club needs to get some mopeds for us to keep up with them.

Seven Springs Grand Prix

Glad to report this week that we had the best youth turn out in years with 6 of our youth competing at the Seven Springs GP in Loughrea . We had a strong contingent with three of the girls and three boys covering all age categories from Under 12 to Under 16 . It was a “first” for three of our riders and they all flew the Lakeside Wheelers flag amazingly well. The Under 12 boys/girls and Under 14 girls all raced together in a single race with Caoimhe O’Brien taking 3rd overall and Aoife taking 6th (1st Unplaced Under 12 girl). There were only prizes for the top 3 but we will see great things to come from Aoife O’Brien in the near future. Conor and Aaron had a great race in the fast paced Under 14 boys race coming in a very respectable 4th and 5th place respectively in the bunch sprint only being beaten by two of last year’s national champions from O’Leary Stone Kanturk and a strong man from Westport.

The guys are getting stronger weekly and it is great to see them flying the flag at such a level. Naomi raced with the Under 16 girls who started with the Under 14 boys and continues to improve in form coming in around 13th (2nd Unplaced Under 16 girl) and happy that she is finally beating some of the boys. Seán Kennedy raced with the Under 16 boys in his first race and unfortunately had a mechanical so had to stop to tighten his front skewer. This is our second mechanical in 2 weeks, (we do need a pre-race checklist in place before Phil is officially sacked). The pace of the Under 16s race was extremely fast making it impossible for Seán to get back on to the group but he continued to race hard in the chase which will stand to him in future races with the fitness and miles he has in the legs.

All in all a great day out for the youth with us competing well in the different categories , the future of lakeside is bright.

A collage of images from the Youths action in Loughrea on Sunday.