Racing battles hotting up as 60 riders set for crucial stage
A crucial stage has been reached in the Summer Cycling League in Sligo.
With three events gone and just three events to go it will be all guns blazing when the top sixty plus cycle racers from the county line up at Carraroe this Wednesday evening, hosted on this occasion by Bottecchia CC.
The first three legs consisted of two time trials and one race, while this second half will be a mirror image of that with two races and just one TT – although the time trial will be a brutal hill-climb of 6% incline out at Kilcoosey Co Leitrim.
Wednesday’s race, unlike the circuit event on the 15th of July, will be an out-and-back race.
Starting at Carraroe Church the various groups will ride out twenty-six kilometres and make a U-turn at Ballyfarnon village before sprinting back twenty-four kilometres to finish on the top of Union Hill.
The star of this series to date is undoubtedly the twenty-three years old Bottecchia CC rider Davoren Fallon.
Davoren won both TT events by quite a margin in each case and was in hot pursuit of the main bunch in the July race but was just beaten by literally “running out of road”.
He was in the last group of riders starting that evening and he was in the company of some elite riders, such as former World Junior Road Race champion Mark Scanlon Bottecchia CC and last year’s series winner Alan Horan of Yeats CC.
However, on the occasion of the July race it was another dark horse, Ryan Annette who sprinted for the stage win closely followed by a huge bunch of A4 and club riders.
In the ladies’ section Heather Foley Bottecchia has taken a lead that seems unassailable at this stage, but anything can happen in bike racing, and she has talented riders such as Erika Murray Yeats CC and Kate Hawney Bottecchia CC chasing her in each race.
In the Masters section then Hugh Bennett of Innisfree Wheelers is proving that his 2019 high placing was no fluke, but this year he is being well challenged by experienced riders such as Rory Connor NWMBC and Basil Freeman of Yeats CC.
In the team event Bottecchia CC were somewhat the surprise winners in 2019, but this year the perpetual trophy may be wrestled off them by a very big and talented Yeats CC squad.
So a very exciting event in prospect this Wednesday and most money will probably be on Scanlon or Fallon to take the stage.
This leg is more suitable for the scratch group to chase down the early starters because there are no greasy left-hand turns to negotiate and this will undoubtedly favour the chasing group of top class riders.
Sign-on is from 6pm at Carraroe car park, and all entries must be done on-line and the various clubs will submit their teams by Tuesday evening, so that the various handicap groupings can be assigned. The first group of riders will be away at 7pm.
They will be followed by other groups at various intervals with the elite riders having to wait until about 7.15pm before their race begins.