Devins’ fine victory
MATTHEW Devins lined up at the John McCullagh memorial road race in Cookstown recently. The race consisted of 4 laps of a rolling 11.5 km circuit totaling 46km. The first few laps saw a lot of action with various riders getting small gaps but were brought back each time by Matthew and Donal Walsh, two of the riders in form at the moment. Arron Rafferty was the first serious contender to make a break on the 2nd lap and looked promising but with a strong head wind he could only eke out a small gap of 15 seconds. At the start of the 3rd lap Arron had been brought back by Matthew and Donal. This is when Matthew decided to attack just as there was a lull in the Race. Matthew instantly put a large gap into the group, which had exploded into pieces,such was the hurry to get back to Matthew. Everyone knew he was the rider in form.
The Yeats rider pressed on for half a lap eking out a 30 second gap. Then it stayed that way until the bell lap (last lap). All the time Matthew was away the other lads could see him so it wasn’t a case of out of sight out of mind. They were also working hard to bring him back and it wasn’t going to be as easy as it might have looked.
On the head wind section the main group were starting to make inroads with one of the Banbridge riders working really hard. They had brought the gap down to 15 seconds.
On the fast 5km run in Matthew knew even a small gap on the tailwind section, he would hang on for the win. Matthew held on for another fine victory of 12 seconds from Chris Neil Banbridge and Ciaran Dixon McConvey Cycles rounding out the podium.
Next up for Matthew is another 1 day 3 stage Corkagh Park races in Dublin. Representing Connaght will be Younger brother Marcus in the U14 races.