CONNOR STARS ON DEBUT

BALLYMENA Road Club – Chain Reaction Cycles – rider Connor Young was selected to ride for the Cycling Ulster team at last weekend’s Newry three day stage race.

Connor’s race started well and he finished Friday night’s opening stage in the same group as race winner Nigel Quigley (Bann Wheelers)

Connor recorded 5 minutes 04 seconds in Saturday morning’s time trial stage. This was 55 seconds slower that stage winner Ian Richardson (UCD) who clocked 4 minutes 09 seconds and took over the race lead as a result.

Stage three saw Connor finish 33rd, just 1 minute 41 seconds behind the stage winner Ross Collins (UCD). However fourth placed Art McManus (South Dublin) took over the race lead by 4 seconds from Cormac Clarke (Newry) with Ross Collins third at 7 seconds.

The final stage on Sunday was won by Matty Blaney (North Down) who led in a group of 22 riders in 2 hours 37 minutes. Connor came in with the next bunch just 6 seconds behind the stage winner and finished 37th overall at 2 minutes 19 seconds, to mark what had been a memorable debut in the Cycling Ulster team colours. The youthful Cycling Ulster team was eighth of the seventeen finishing teams.

The attentive Art McManus was fourth on the stage and this gave him the overall race win by 4 seconds from Cormac Clarke with Ross Collins third at 13 seconds. (There were 84 finishers)

Afterwards Connor was quick to praise the race organisers, “It was a very well organised event by Newry Wheelers. The roads we were using were excellent and this meant the racing was brilliant too. I can’t wait for next year’s event”

ALAN’S HAT-TRICK

Ballymena Road Club’s Alan Blair completed a trio of wins on the Ballynease circuit at Portglenone when he won last Tuesday evening’s Bann Valley road racing league event on the course. This was the third year in succession that Alan had won at Ballynease. He commented “This is my first win of the season – Yippee”

MCQUIGG CUP ABANDONED

Ballymena Road Club – Chain Reaction Cycles – were forced to abandon their annual Sam McQuigg cup 50 miles time trial last Wednesday evening.

Torrential rain, just before the scheduled start, made the road surface condition extremely wet and this, combined with the dark conditions and spray from passing traffic rendered the cyclists almost invisible.

There was no chance of waiting half an hour and having a later start because of the time it takes to complete the race, so even if the weather had improved there was no way all the riders could have finished before lighting up time.

Hopefully another date can be found for this important race as soon as possible.

It was back to Woodgreen on Thursday night for the third round of the David McCall Foundation / Bikedock TimeTrial series. The unpredictable weather of late probably put a few testers off but for those who made the journey they remained dry. Some good times were recorded on a night where conditions were described as “a little less than perfect”.

The event also doubled as the Martin Kennedy memorial with the trophy going to the fastest rider on the night Ronan McLaughlin from the An Post team who recorded a personal best for the distance of 19 minutes 50 seconds for the 10 miles test. Second place was taken by John Heverin (Clann Eireann) with 20.20. Completing the top three was Robert Stewart (TVR) with a 21.23. Best for Ballymena Road Club was seventh placed Matthew Brennan who clocked 22 minutes 04 seconds.

Ronan McLaughlin was presented with the Martin Kennedy cup by Brian McGookin, Secretary of Old Bleach CC. Martin was tragically killed in 1997 and the cup was raised in his memory.

David McCall Foundation TT Series Rd 3 Results - 10 mile Woodgreen 28/06/12

(1) Ronan McLaughlin (An Post) 19 minutes 50 seconds (2) John Heverin (Clan Eireann) 20.20 (3) Robert Stewart (Team Vision) 21.23 (4) Thomas Martin (Eurocycles) 21.27 (5) R Millar (Bikeworks) and M Watson (Ards) both 21.59 (7) Matthew Brennan (BRC) 22.04 other BRC (21) Derek Dougan 23.50 (24) Adrian Kerr 24.36 (26) Ryan Shaw 24.54 (32) Maeve Savage 27.33

CALENDAR

Ballymena Road Club’s event this week in the Northstone sponsored club race series is the Star Trophy road race which, unusually, takes place on Saturday morning 7th July. This is the first time I have known a scheduled club race to take place on a Saturday so hopefully the experiment works out favourably.

The race will start on the Carnlough road in Broughshane and proceed to Carnlough, Garron Tower, Waterfoot, Glenariff glen, Martinstown, Rathkenny and finish on the Ballygarvey road approach to Broughshane some 40 miles later. The chief marshall is Andrew Wills and he will be assisted by Nigel Kernohan, Quinton McFall and any others who can make themselves available, as a couple of the marshalls on Andy’s list are unavailable through injury or illness.

Monday 9th July BRC youth section 5 miles time trial Sheddings to Broughshane at 7pm.

Wednesday 11th July BRC 5 miles time trial Woodgreen 7pm (Marshall is Karl Taylor)

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