Road Race - Flatfields (map)
29 April 2010
The 5th round of Dromara Cycling Club's Thursday night league took place on 29 April 2010 at the Flatfields circuit on the Moira Road. This circuit was only introduced less than a week before when the club committee realised that there were too many participants to run the road race at the scheduled location on the Glassdrumman Road. This was a well justified reason as there was a turn out of 50 riders, of which 8 were from other local clubs, and this circuit, of just over 4 miles, was more manageable. This race was sponsored by Seamus Downey Cycles.
Club race secretary Nigel Sudlow had done his calculations in the days leading up to the race and had decided on five groups of riders and 6 laps. This helped to get proceedings underway very quickly on the night with Group 1 setting off around 7:15 with 8 riders including 4 youth. Group 2 set off 3 minutes later and contained 13 riders including 3 women. Group 3 was the smallest with just 6 riders and they left 3 minutes after Group 2. Group 4 had 10 riders and left 3 minutes after Group 2. The "scratch" group contained 13 riders among them Glenn Kinning (East Antrim) and Davy McKnight (Dromara CC) who are taking part in the gruelling Tour of Ulster which starts this Saturday. Scratch went off at 12 minutes 45 seconds behind Group 1.
Racing was intense especially for the first two laps and the circuit was a tough one with a bit of a climb to test the riders. After the second lap Mary Hunter had got dropped by Group 2 and Stevie Baines had retired from the race. By the end of lap 3, Group 1 had been caught by both Group 2 and Group 3 with James Gilpin getting dropped off the back of Group 3 and Stewart Moore getting dropped from Group 2. Both Gavin and Chris Magowan were dropped from the scratch group. Nathan Proctor and Cathal Hendron retired from the race. By the end of lap 4 half of Group 2 had merged with Group 3, and the scratch group had caught Group 4 to form a big group of 18 riders. Peter Jamison, Stewart Moore and Damien McDonald retired in this lap. On the penultimate lap it was still the 9 man group (Group 3 with half of Group 2) leading the race, followed by the rest of Group 2 with the supergroup now splitting lead by Davy McKnight. On to the final lap it was the group of riders made up from Group 2 & 3 who managed to hold off the Group 4 and Scratch group.
Leading the way up the hill towards the finish line was Phil O'Neill, normally found on a mountain bike, who was enjoying his first ever road race. He had managed to pull away from his group to get a gap of 8 seconds over closest rival and fellow Group 3 rider Stephen Wallace. Next across the line were 4 riders from Group 2, newcomer John Cycle, Paul Jess, Alan McMullan and another newcomer Rodney Stewart. They were followed by three from Group 3, Jonathan McBride, Peter Bryson, and another mountain biker Geoff Brown. Glenn Kinning lead the finish from the scratch group just ahead of Darren Weir and Davy McKnight.
Eoghan McGuigan was left to finish the 3 lap Under 14s race after Nathan retired. In the great Under 16s battle it was Chris Weir who took the win finishing 19 seconds ahead of Zak Hanna after 5 laps of the course. Val O'Neill was the first women over the line closely followed by Caroline Patterson. Mary Hunter finished one lap down.
Many thanks to timekeepers Trevor Annett and Davy Robb and to all the marshals for keeping the riders safe. The next round is a time trial on Thursday 6 May 2010 starting at 6:50 pm in Annahilt
Timekeepers: Trevor Annett & Davy Robb
Marshall: Andrew Wilson, Bob Patterson, Jim McMaster, Michael Pyper, Stephen Heasley, Alastair Gray, Sharon Weir
Report & photographs: Martin Grimley
Nigel's race video: here (youtube)
Results below. For full results with split times and league points click here
Group 5 getting ready
Group 2
Group 4
Scratch
Group 2
Group 4
