Friday 28 June - Sunday 30 June 2013
Newry 3-day road race - host club Newry Wheelers

With the 100th edition of the world-famous Tour de France getting underway on Saturday past around the shores of Corsica, it was only fair that over 90 members of the Irish cycling community got to have their own stage race, except this one was 3 days long, not 3 weeks.

The Newry 3-day is famous throughout Ireland for its excellent routes, ranging from flat stages to routes with steep, energy sapping climbs.  Dromara Cycling Club entered a 5-man team into the race against some of Ireland’s top A2/A3 riders to face what the race organisers had set up.  Gavin Magowan, Nathan Mullan, Anthony Quinn, Chris Magowan and Ronnie Smyth started the first stage on Friday night with a 40 mile race taking in 3 full laps of the Warrenpoint-Newry carriageway before turning onto the Grinnan road, were a sharp lung buster of a climb was present to split what was an intact bunch to pieces.

Tony Quinn was very active on the night attacking the peleton in an attempt to get a gap. He did do with another rider with the gap getting no more than 26 seconds. They were reeled in and so a full bunch of riders remained heading to the first climb of what was a pan flat course, with the pack splitting to pieces with riders out the back and others attempting to get over the climb first for the descent into the finish. On the night Gavin Magowan finished 2nd on the stage, finishing 1 second behind winner Ian Inglis of Curran Racing.
Ronnie Smyth finished 10th with Tony Quinn 12th. Nathan Mullan was 60th and Chris Magowan was 68th. With 3 Dromara riders present in the top 15 this left the team leading the team standings,  an  excellent start to the weekend.

The second stage was a 2.3 mile time trial starting on Saturday morning beside the Hilltown Co-op. The finish was at the 30mph sign at the bottom of the climb into Rathriland. Even though it was a short time trial, this stage had a big effect on the overall GC.
Fastest Dromara rider on this stage was Gavin in 25th, with brother Chris 2 places behind in 27th. Ronnie was 30th, along with Tony 39th and Nathan 62nd.

After this Newry Wheelers lead the team standings with Gavin sitting 9th 19 seconds off the yellow jersey Ian Inglis going into the third stage on the Saturday afternoon.

The third stage was a 55 mile race taking in 3 laps of the Hilltown circuit, before turning right at Hilltown towards Rostrevor taking in the tough Reed Hall climb, then turning left at Rostrevor to tackle the Elm Hall climb towards the finish in Hilltown square.
The attacks where going right from the start with Tony once again getting away with a group of riders. He stayed away for a long time with the gap stretching to 1 minute 30 seconds at one point. H was unfortunate to get caught before heading to Rostrevor, but it was a brave effort by one of the most aggressive riders in the race.

The Reed Hall climb saw many splits in the pack with Chris sadly getting caught out behind a group of riders who had been dropped. He fought hard toget back onto the pack on the descent, and he was successful but all of his energy was left on the descent and he had to be content with climbing Elm Hall with a small group of riders to the finish. Ronnie managed to get into the yellow jersey group who were chasing a two man break going past Santa’s cottage. He stayed in that group to the finish, placing 9th on the stage, with Gavin 15th, Tony 22nd, Nathan 50th and Chris 79th.

Heading into the final stage Ronnie was well placed in 9th overall, 51 seconds off yellow with Gavin 14th, Tony 23rd, Nathan 53rd and Chris 28th. The team were sitting in 2nd overall in the team standings after the third stage, some 6 seconds off the leaders Phoenix CC.
The final stage was the toughest, a 72 mile hilly route that took in climbs at the Horsehoe bend at Castlewellan, two climbs into Rathriland and one at the Seven Sisters near Rathriland.

With the team prize within our reach Gavin took it upon himself to take a sprint prime at Poyntzpass, and when he saw a small group of riders follow him they began working together to form a break that stayed away for 52 miles, but they were caught before entering Rathriland for the second time.

On the run into Newry from Rathriland Ronnie got into a chasing group to the leaders, which set him up nicely for him to come in first in his group at  the finish in 9th. Tony finished in the same group in 18th. Gavin wasn’t for letting the team prize slip away so he put in one final dig to finish 6 seconds ahead of his group in 37th. Nathan put in a brave effort and rode in placing 64th. Chris however got caught in a crash entering Rathriland for the first time which sadly ended his race after the effort he put in for the previous 3 stages.
With three of the team members placing high up in the 4th stage it meant that Dromara took the overall team prize by over a minute from North Down CC, this was an excellent reward for the teams’ effort over the course of the weekend!

Also Ronnie rode a brilliant race to finish 11th overall, only 59 seconds off the yellow jersey. Gavin placed 5th in the Sprints classification.
The team are to be commended for how they rode over the 3 days, they rode as a team the whole weekend and didn’t go down without a fight which made them the top team out of 14 other teams.

The team managers Michael Mullan and Zak Hanna were well pleased with the results, thankfully there were no mechanicals or crashes making for an excellent weekend overall for the club.

Many thanks to Mourne Cycles in Newcastle for supplying the team with race nutrition for the riders.


Report by Zak Hanna