Road Race - Drumaroad circuit (map)
25 April 2013
The first of the club road races took place on Thursday 25 April 2013 around the Drumaroad circuit. This circuit has not been used by the club since June 2010. It was a pleasant evening, dry with clear skies.
Four groups were formed. Group 1 contained Kevin Walker and Brendan Duff set off first. Group 2 had 8 riders (Brendan Doyle, Conor Rice, Jonathan McBride, Paul Jess, Gareth Kirkwood, Adrian Booth and two guests Marty McVeigh and Jimmy McVeigh) and they set off 3 minutes later. Group 3 had 14 riders (Bryce Hetherington, Gary Bailie, Gary Gray, Ivan Bradford, Marty McAnulty, Michael Mullan, Neill Currie, Stephen Wallace, Tommy Downey, Zak Hanna, David Hawthorne, Michael Cassidy, Owen McManus and guest Lavelle Grant). This group set off 3½ minutes behind Group 2 which was 6½ minutes behind the starting group. Finally Group 4 "scratch" was filled with 10 open road racers (Tony Quinn, Barry Kellett, Chris and Gavin Magowan, Paul Mawhirt, Ronnie Smyth, Nathan Mullan, as well as three guests Cathal Smyth, Fergus Rooney and Karl Morgan). They set off 3 minutes behind Group 3 which was 9½ minutes behind the starting group.
Group 1 rode well together taking their share of turns on the front but the groups behind closed up quickly over the 4 lap race. The scratch group were working particularly well and didn't take long to sweep up the riders into a mixed bunch. Coming around the final corner Anthony Quinn made the jump and took off for a solo win with Nathan Mullan chasing hard and Barry Kellett chasing Nathan. The top ten all finished with a few bike lengths between each rider then there was a gap before Gary Bailie lead the next group of Gavin, Ronnie, Chris and Zak over the line. After this bunch the remaining riders finished at their own pace, glad to see the chequered flag.
This race was for the Leapoughs Cup. Well done to Anthony and to all the riders and many thanks to the timekeepers and marshals.
Timekeepers: John Clyde and Colin Roy
Marshals:
Point A - Trevor Wright, John Shanks, John Heaney, Peter Disney
Point B - Paul Gick, Ryan Calvert and Rodney McCusker (Lakeland)
Point C - Noel Gibson, Raymund Martin and Marcus Magowan
Point D - Martin Marner and Neil Fitzsimons
and to Owen McManus for marshalling at another road section after he dropped out
Photographs: Martin Grimley
Report: Martin Grimley
