On Friday 27th July the Dromara Cycling Club's team of Darren Weir, David McKnight and Ronnie Smyth headed to Crumlin to take part in the Bobby Crilly 3 day stage race. The race was promoted by Pheonix CC of Belfast. The Dromara riders were in good spirits after a strong result and third team overall in the previous weekends Portaferry 3 day race, promoted by Ards CC.

 

Friday's opening stage was a short circuit road race around Crumlin, starting at  7.30 pm with approx 65 riders signing on. There followed 1 hours 15 minutes of  hard racing with may riders trying to escape. The stage was taken in a late surge by Matthew Ward [team Usher], with all Dromara riders finishing in the bunch just 8 seconds later.

Saturday mornings race was 6 laps of a 8 mile circuit at Nutts Corner starting at 11.00 am. Once again there were many attempts to break away, but it was not until lap 4, that 9 riders including Dromara's David McKnight broke the stalemate and with Pheonix CC and Team Usher both having two men in the break, indecision behind meant the group stayed away. The stage was won by John Neill [Pheonix CC], 2nd Adam Armstrong, [Northern CC, Dave Kane], with Dromara CC rider David McKnight finishing in 5th place. The rest of the main field finished over four minutes back.

On Saturday afternoon a 6 mile Circuit Time Trial from Nutts Corner began at 3.00 pm. Professional rider David McCann was first with Adam Armstrong 2nd. Dromara riders Ronnie Smyth 13th, David McKnight 14th and Darren Weir 21st, a great result with Dromara the fastest team in the time trail and 2nd team in the overall standings, with Sundays tough stage and mountain top finish to come.

Sunday mornings stage was 3 laps of a 16 mile circuit around  Nutts Corner, before heading through Dundrod to a mountain top finish on Divis Mountain, with permission kindly granted by the National Trust. Once again racing was hard on the opening two laps, with a number of Apollo Cycling Team members trying to attack, they were third team just under a minute behind Dromara CC. On lap 3 four riders managed to break clear, including the stage winner Connor Murphy and David McCann. With two climbs and the mountain finish at Divis, large gaps appeared in the field. David McKnight led the Dromara team up Divis to protect his overall 6th place, 1st 2nd cat home, and to ensure Dromara finished as the 2nd placed team after Pheonix CC, who had nearly 20 riders in the race. This is a fantastic team display from such a small club and well done to all.

The overall race winner was Adam Armstrong[ Northern CC/Dave Kane], 2nd Glen Kinning @ 1.01[Castlereagh CC, 3rd Paul Brady @1.42. David McKnight was a magnificent 6th @4.25. The final team results were 1st Pheonix CC, 2nd Dromara CC @4.28, 3rd Clann Eireann/ Linen Green @5.45.