10 mile time trial, Lurgan Road, Dromore (map)
23 August 2012
The Dromara club league continued last night with a return to the Lurgan Road outside of Dromore for another 10 mile time trial. As per last week, this round of the Dromara league had welcomed riders from the Ulster Women's Association (UWA) who seen this as the penultimate round of their time trial league. Apart from the four female riders from the UWA, this event attracted seven visitors from neighbouring clubs with a total of 35 lining up to take part. The weather was overcast at the sign on with light rain arriving just before the riders set off. There was hardly a breeze at the start/finish area but the wind was an issue further out along the course on exposed stretches.
First rider away at 7 pm was Gary Gibson with Adele McCann and Gareth McCann (both from Apollo CT) setting off next. Kay Hack (Bann Wheelers) was the first of the UWA riders, setting off in 9th place. Bernie Monaghan (Dromara CC) was competing in both leagues going in 13th position. UWA rider Toni Armstrong (Apollo CT) went off 15th, Heather Foley (Maryland Wheelers) set off 19th, Maeve Savage (Ballymena RC) was the 28th rider. Among the other guests was newcomer to time trialling Neil McCartan (Dromore CC). The majority of the riders left at one minute intervals with the last six going at intervals of 30 seconds. Last rider away was the brother of the first rider away, Noel Gibson.
Ronnie Smyth, who was the fastest rider last week, repeated his speedy performance to finish in a time of 23 minutes and 36 seconds. His main rival Gavin Magowan was just 17 seconds slower. John Clyde finished just over a minute behind Gavin with Martin McAnulty, on his new bike, setting an excellent time of 25:25 to finish 4th fastest. Junior McAuley (Apollo CT) was 5th with the first of the UWA riders, Heather Foley finishing 6th overall in a time of 25:38. Kay was second fastest of the UWA riders with Bernie (in some borrowed time trialling attaire) taking third by setting a great time of 28:35. Toni was the fourth UWA rider with Maeve fifth.
The Dromara riders then had their times compared to their average across all the other 10 mile courses this season. This way the riders could see if they have improved on their average time and the riders with the biggest improvement got the higher points for the overall league. Bernie Monaghan took the maximum points (40) again this week as she beat his average time by almost 2½ minutes. Also in a repeat of last week, it was no surprise to see that Martin McAnulty beat his average time by just over 2 minutes to gain 39 points for the league. Putting in another great performance in only his second time trial was Nathan Mullan who took over 1½ minutes out of his time last week. Ted McKibbin also set a great time finishing over a minute ahead of his average. Looking down the rest of the list of Dromara riders it turned out that exactly half (12) had gained time on their average with the other half going slower than average. Well done to all the competitors. A special thanks to the timekeepers and marshals for volunteering their time to put on a successful event.
Next Thursday (30 August 2012) will be a 3-up team time trial at the Annahilt circuit. This will be a pre-register only event so that teams can be allocated. Rules: no time trial bikes, TT bars, deep section wheels or disc wheels. Road bikes only. The time stops when the third rider crosses the line.
See website for details (www.dromaracc.co.uk).
Timekeeper: Davy Robb, Chris Magowan and Mary Hunter
Timekeeper's assistant: Gary Gray
Marshals: Davy McClurg, Stephen Wallace, Marcus Magowan and to Michael Mullan.
Photographs and report: Martin Grimley
