Super silver for Bingham

CYCLING NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

KILCULLEN hosted the National Road Races Championships over the weekend and while Nicholas Roche was winning the main event for the elite’s on the Sunday, Cuchulainn’s cyclists were performing out of their skin in the support races on the Saturday.

First up on Saturday was the ultra competitive Masters 40 Road Race, which attracted over 160 riders to the start line. Here Alan Bingham was in imperious form and infiltrated the early brake.

This group had to work hard all day and was never given much leeway by the main bunch.

Eventually in the closing stages of the 100 kilometere race Bingham escaped with Wicklow’s Greg Swinand. The pair had just 10 seconds to spare as they approached the line, where Swinand kicked first and held off Bingham by the slenderest of margins. The result was so close that the finish line photo had to be consulted before Swinand was declared champion and Bingham awarded the silver medal.

Also on Saturday the Masters 60 race saw the evergreen Jimmy Flynn take a bronze medal. Jimmy was part of a seven-man group that came home just 30 seconds behind the winner, Belfast’s Sean Hargan.

The sprint was won by Sean Lally who has been racing for over 40 years and used his experience to beat Flynn into third place.

In the Ladies TT championship, Eve McCrystal (above), riding with the ASEA Wheelworx team took the silver and in the ladies championship road race she missed out on the gold medal by a very slim margin, when she was beaten by Lydia Boylan from Team WNT.

On Sunday morning the final race of the weekend, the Elite Men’s and Under 23 Road Race championships (combined) got underway, attracting a field of 145 riders. Weather conditions were just cruel with heavy rain falling on the riders for the duration of the 188km race. HERE, Roche put aside his disappointment at not being selected for the Tour de France, by clinching an All-Ireland double.

The Team Sky rider had claimed the National Time Trial Championship on Thursday evening in a blistering time of 47 mins 14 seconds and then saw off a star-studded field to land the big one on Sunday.

In 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.

This was the second time that Roche took the gold medal in an All-Ireland Time Trial championship, having won the title back in 2007.

Locally, this Thursday night sees Cuchulainn host the Louth and Leinster 10-mile Time Trial Championships.