Roche ‘Nics’ national title
NICOLAS Roche put aside his disappointment at not being selected for the Tour de France, by clinching an All-Ireland double last weekend.
The Team Sky rider claimed the National Time Trial Championship on Thursday evening at Kilcullen, County Kildare in a blistering time of 47 minutes 14 seconds and then saw off a star-studded field to land the big one on Sunday afternoon.
In the TT 20-year-old Eddie Dunbar, who races with the Axeon Hagens Berman team and hails from Cork, finished in second place, 1 min 3 seconds behind Roche with Duleek native Ryan Mullen a further fourteen seconds back.
In the Ladies TT championship, Garda Eve McCrystal from Dundalk and riding with the ASEA Wheelworx team took the silver medal.
On Saturday morning the championship weekend continued, again in Kilcullen, County Kildare with the Masters (previously known as Veterans) Over 40, Over 50 and Over 60s championships attracting no less than 246 riders.
The Over 40s championship was held over four laps of a circuit covering 104km in distance and at the end of this event it was down to a very exciting battle for gold with Greg Swinand from the Aqua Blue club in Cork just pipping Dundalk rider Alan Bingham from Cuchulainn CC.
In the Over 60s championship, Jimmy Flynn from Cuchulainn CC finished third and was awarded the bronze medal.
The final championships of the weekend were the Elite Ladies Road Race, the Under 23 Road Race and Elite Men’s Road Race championships.
In the Ladies championship which was contested over 95 km, Eve McCrystal (Garda) from the Dundalk ASEA Wheelworx team only missed out on the gold medal by a very slim margin, when she was beaten by Lydia Boylan from Team WNT.
On Sunday a very strong sixman break went clear after one lap and included last year’s title holder, Damien Shaw, Matt Brammeier, Nicolas Roche, Eddie Dunbar, Daire Feeley and Mark Downey.
Roche made his break from this group with a lap to go and held out for a comfortable win.
The team prize in this championship, once again, went to the Dundalk ASEA Wheelworx team, which was led home by Mark Dowling, Marcus Christie and Bryan McCrystal, who incidentally is a brother of Eve.
A lot of the home based riders rode extremely well in very difficult weather conditions but simply could not match the powerful professionals.
Meanwhile, on Monday night last the opening round of the Mark Mullen Memorial Handicap League, promoted by Drogheda Wheelers CC was held at Donore, near Drogheda and got off to a flying start with a fantastic entry.
This year the league has attracted a variety of new clubs’ which includes White River CC from Collon, Ardee CC, Smart Lamp CC from Swords, Ratoath CC as well as all of the usual clubs.
With so many riders lining up, it gave the handicappers a difficult task in trying to work out a fair handicap.
However, it worked out very well because on the last of the five laps, all groups emerged which made for a most exciting finish.
With just 1km of racing remaining, Javan Nulty from Julianstown jumped clear and approaching the line on the uphill finish he had a slim lead over Stamullen Road Club pair of Gary Gorman and Seamus Howard who finished second and third respectively.
Last year’s winner, Niall Craven from the promoting Drogheda Wheelers club finished fourth with team-mate Daragh Campbell finishing in fifth place and Arek Klus from Stamullen RC in sixth place.
In the underage race, Drogheda Wheelers filled the first four places with victory going to Seamus Connor, second Sean Lenehan, third Daire Lenehan and fourth to Liam Lynch.
The Mark Mullen Memorial League continues each Monday night at 7.30 from Donore NS with the final round due to be held on Monday night 25th July.
It’s another busy schedule next weekend, with fixtures as follows: Thursday: Leinster & Youth TT Champs/Invacare Paracycling; Friday/Saturday/Sunday – Newry Wheelers CC 3-Day; Saturday: Ballivor GP 2016; Sunday: Eddie Tobin Memorial Road Race, Bunclody.