James wins David Armour Memorial

THE David Armour Memorial 25-Mile Road Race was the first of the club's road races for the 2010 season.

The race took place over five laps of the Collins circuit with 24 riders presenting for the event, which was handicapped with three groups separated by a time of seven minutes. The first group worked well together, they completed each of the five laps in around 13.30 minutes. The scratch group caught the second group in the last lap but was unable to catch the first group.

The first three riders across the line are all newcomers to competitive cycling, however, James Thompson must have got his hands on a book about road racing tactics as James timed his attack to perfection in the last mile to take victory, closely followed by Charlie Wright who seems to get stronger by the week.

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Third across the line was big Steven Logan, another rider who continues to improve, Olly Laverty put in a solid performance to take fourth, with Coleraine man Nigel Kerr taking fifth place. Jason Henry was the first of the scratch riders home in sixth, with Chris ‘Omatoe’ McIntyre close on the Ballymoney man’s tail again. Eighth was Ciaran Mullan who rode strongly in the second group throughout the race, Niall O Hagan (Ballymoney CC) also put a good shift in with the second group and finished ninth, scratch rider Kyle Cromie was 10th, Bryan McKinney and Steven McAllister (Ballymoney CC) finished 11th and 12th respectively, both young men had an exceptional race as they were riding in the scratch group with the experienced Henry and Cromie.

Robert Downes finished 13th, Sharman Crawford 14th and Davy Parke 15th also performed well against their younger contemporaries. Newcomer Damien Hezlett and Ashley Moore showed determination to finish the event. And 13-year-old Brandon Herald produced a fantastic effort to complete a lap of the course with the first group in 13.30, good effort Brandon.

Young Ailbhe Kendall rode a five mile TT on the Collins Circuit last Tuesday night and recorded a ‘Personal Best’ time of 17.14, Ailbhe’s consistency is certainly showing dividends.