Hectic End-of-Season Schedule for Youths Squad

Post date: Aug 20, 2018 4:1:22 PM

(By Eamon Hogan - Sun. 19th August 2018)

The end of the season for our youth racers has been a hectic few weeks with no less than three major events in a couple of week.

Errigal International Youth Tour

We headed to Donegal for the Errigal International Youth Tour 2018. This weekend of racing is based on GC points gained over two road races, a Time Trial and a Criterium around the centre of Letterkenny. The tour attracts teams from Scotland, England, Isle of Man and the very best from the four provinces of Ireland. It brings a level of racing you would find hard to see in the professional ranks, and is a huge experience and help in the development of our youth squad.

We had six Lakeside Wheelers youths racing; Caoimhe and Aoife O’Brien raced in the Ireland team colours. Tommy Hogan, Leo Gunning and Conor Farrell raced in the U16 category with Mikey Flaherty in the U14’s.

The O’Brien girls did great, taking 2nd place in the U14 and U16 races.

The lads found the going tough as the standard in the races this year seemed to go up a notch from previous years. This was eviden in the times being produced, as both races in the U16s were faster by approximately 10 minutes compared to 2017.

All in all, we had a super weekend with all of our racers doing themselves, their club and country proud.

A big thank you too John Farrell and Tullamore Motors for kindly supplying a van to take bikes, gear and all that goes with stage racing to Donegal, we would have been lost without it.

Leinster Championship:

Today (Sunday 19th August) the lads headed to Co. Meath for the Youth Leinster Championships. Another super days racing with the O’Brien girls really coming into top form ahead of the National Championships next weekend in Ballymoney. To be honest, I have never seen Aoife race as strong as she was today, with very few of the lads able to stay with the pace she was putting out and come in 4th and 1st girl. Mikey had another strong race coming 5th. Tommy, Leo, Caoimhe and Conor raced in a fast U16 race, with the average pace coming in at 39.4km/h for the 40km. Caoimhe came in 1st girl and the lads were just off podium places.

John Beggs Memorial

Conor T Farrell travelled to Dromore, near Banbridge last week to compete in the John Beggs Memorial race. The course is considered one of the toughest on the racing calendar. One rider lone rider led the race for 60K building up a lead of 1.5 minutes. Conor took chase on the last lap and caught the leader with 9K to go. Unfortunatetely they were caught by the bunch with 1k to go and Conor was just pipped for 3rd place but very happy to claim 4th in such a prestigious race. Well done Conor.

Conor T. Farrell coming oh so close to a podium finish in the John Beggs Memorial.