Glory for Road Club riders at Ulster championships

Eileen Burns retained her Ulster ladies 50 miles title with a personal best time of 1 hour 54 minutes 34 seconds.

the Ballymena Road Club - Chain Reaction Cycles team of Steven Workman, who clocked 1.51.42, Jason Burns 1.52.15 and Eileen Burns were crowned team champions.

This may be the first time a senior team title has been won by a club which included a female in their winning line up and unique in the respect that a husband and wife were part of the team. Certainly it is a first time achievement for Ballymena RC.

Double gold medallist Eileen said “I’m pleased to have retained my title as 50 miles Time Trial Ulster Ladies Champion with a time of 1:54:34. This took 16:39 off my time from last year. However I have mixed emotions right now as today I was just 62secs from the women’s Irish record of 1:53:32, which is held by Avril Swan.

“At the same time I am really happy to have retained my title and to have improved my time by quite a bit. My husband Jason clocked up an impressive time of 1:52:15 and Steven Workman also competed and did 1:51:42. With these times Ballymena road club were awarded the Ulster team prize.”

The events overall winner was S McIntyre of Orchard wheelers in 1 hour 43 minutes 38 seconds. Second fastest was Colm Cassidy (UCD) 1.44.33 while John Madden (Dig Deep) was third with 1.45.53