Jason claims first Road Club time trial victory

Jason Burns won last week's Ballymena Road Club 5 miles time trial at Woodgreen.

Conditions were cold and windy for the race but despite this there were several personal best performances.

Jason Burns rode to his first club time trial win when he recorded a personal best time of 10 minutes 15 seconds for a narrow 4 seconds victory over Ryan Bankhead who clocked 10.19.

Club time trial champion Steven Workman finished third with 10.37.

Eileen Burns also had a PB and took fourth place with 10 minutes 40 seconds.

Other results (5) Connor Young 10.41 (6) Clifford Grant 11.00 (7) Daryl Sempey 11.05 (8) Tommy Wilson 11.35 (9) Adrian Kerr 11.55 (10) Laura Blair 11.57 (11) Derek Dougan 12.04 (12) Stephen Little 12.12 (13) Stephen Smyth 12.21 (14) John Maxwell 12.49

Visitors (1) Dominic Drumm (Bann Wheelers) 11.11 (2) Gary Cappin (Muckamore Centurions) 12.22

Handicap (1) Stephen Smyth 10.26 (2) Daryl Sempey 11.04 (3) Eileen Burns 11.42 (4) Jason Burns 11.47 (5) Laura Blair 11.49 (6) Ryan Bankhead 11.58

After the race Jason said. “This is my first ever time trial win.

“I have had some top five finishes but I knew I had to be on the pipe from the start if I was to beat Steven and Ryan, who are on great form at the minute.

“My fitness is coming on and the legs are good too, so I knew it would be a close finish.

“I am very happy to get a win; I will try now for a 10 or 25 win. I would really like to get one of those next!”

It was a good week for the Burns household as Jason’s wife Eileen was on the Ballymena team, with Laura Blair and Clare Gillespie which rode to the silver medal in Tuesday night’s Ulster 25 miles team time trial championship at Woodgreen.

The Ballymena girls were the defending champions, but started at a disadvantage as they could only field a team of three,

Winners Phoenix had their full quota of four.

Gold: Phoenix Women (Judith Russell, Val O’Neill, Therese Smyth, Claire McIlwaine) 1:01:04

Silver: Ballymena Road Club - Chain Reaction Cycles (Eileen Burns, Laura Blair, Clare Gillespie) 1:02:45

Bronze: Newry Wheelers (Kerri Farrell, Catherine Sands, C Courtney, Alwynne Shannon) 1:07:32

Ulster 25m Team TT Championship senior results - (1) Cookstown CT 54:15; (2) Madigan 54:25:17; (3) Phoenix A 54:25:51

Eileen was in action again on Thursday night at Toomebridge where she won the opening round of the Women’s Ulster Time Trial league.

It was a 10 miles TT and she recorded 22:57.

Just for good measure Eileen also won the Ladies race at the Groucho GP on Saturday at Armagh and she is currently leading the Women’s Ulster Road Racing league.