Road Race, Maze / Flatfields circuit (map)
26 April 2012
The first road race of Dromara Cycling Club's league for 2012 took place on Thursday 26 April 2012 on the Maze / Flatfields circuit just off the A1 on the Moira Road. Riders were greeted with a wet and windy evening with dark grey clouds looming over the horizon as far as the eye could see. The weather did not seem to put off the 32 riders who turned up at the Elim church for Round 5 of the club league. The numbers however were well down from last year which seen 60 riders on the road.
The groups were decided in advance of the evening by race secretary Gavin Magowan. There were no riders for group 1 and group 2 were merged in with group 3 with some of the group 4 riders getting into this bunch as well !! This group had a motorcycle outrider from the club, Ivan Bradford, who helped keep the riders safe complementing the great work of the marshals who endured the inclement weather.
Group 5 (scratch) started 3½ minutes behind this group and from the 'off' set a very fast pace to catch the big combined group out in front. This fast pace, as well as a few punctures seen riders drop out as they went past the entrance to the church grounds. In total 13 retired from the race.
As predicted the scratch group caught the main bunch with the stronger riders coming through. Towards the end of the 6 lap race there were only two riders in with a chance of winning, Gavin Magowan and Anthony Quinn. On the penultimate lap Gavin having mechnical problems and sent Ivan ahead to get a rear wheel readied for his arrival. Gavin pulled in letting Anthony ride on alone. Even through Gavin was aptly assisted by Paul Mawhirt the gap then to Anthony was too great for Gavin to bridge. Anthony sailed home to a solo win with Gavin finishing 38 seconds later. Anthony will now be the new winner of the Seamus Downey Cup which was won last year by Ronnie Smyth.
Riding strong throughout the race was third placed Aaron McGrady with the only sprint finish of the day coming from Neill Currie and Jonathan McBride. With the wet road the finish line was not clear enough to split these two and both were awarded fourth place. Coming in behind these two were John Clyde and Trevor Wright who were not contesting the finish.
Well done to all riders and many thanks to the timekeepers and to the marshals for keeping the riders safe. A big thanks to the Elim church who kindly let us use their car park.
Next Thursday night (3 May 2012) will be a 10 mile time trial from the Spa lake out towards Seaforde. See website for details (www.dromaracc.co.uk).
Timekeepers: Colin Roy and Kyle Irvine
Marshals: Roisin and Phillip Wilson, Stephen Younge, Malcolm MacDonald, Paul Gick, Massimo Manganaro & daughter, Kevin McDonald, Bobby Archer, Tommy Downey, Gary Bailie and Ryan Mallon. Also thanks to Ivan Bradford for the motorbike support and to Brian Winters for helping around the start/finish area.
Photographs & report: Martin Grimley
