Illness forces Stamullen contender out of Tour
STAMULLEN Road Club had a very strong hand after the opening stage of the Tour of the North 3-day, 4-stage race at the weekend, with Cian Delaney finishing joint second.
Cian was most unfortunate to suffer from a severe tummy bug and struggled to compete in Sunday morning’s Time Trial, which he did manage, but in the afternoon’s road stage he was so unwell he had to retire and set out on the long journey home from Ballymena in Co Antrim.
His teammates Arek Klus, Colin Robinson and Craig Sweetman battled on bravely, as did Bohermeen cyclist Chris Reilly who was a guest rider with the Stamullen club and put in a really strong performance. With Chris finding some good form at present, he will be one rider very capable of keeping the Waller Cup in Bohermeen next weekend.
Other riders from the area who were on duty down at the Gorey 3-Day over the Easter Bank Holiday were mighty pleased with themselves. Niall Craven from Drogheda Wheelers had an excellent eighth placing in Sunday’s 74-mile stage, and sitting comfortably in 14th position on the General Classification list with just one final stage to go was Drogheda Wheelers cyclist Barry Hughes. These riders will be out in force next Sunday in Bohermeen.
Swords man Eoin Morton just came up short in his efforts to claim Ras Mumhan International glory yesterday (Monday), but there was some consolation as he enjoyed a great win in the King of the Mountains competition.
Going into the 115km final stage of the four-day stage race, the UCD clubman was lying in sixth position, only 22 seconds off the leader’s time and with high hopes of overall victory.
He remained active throughout the final stage, making many attempts to escape in the hope of closing the deficit, but everyone else in contention was doing exactly the same thing and ultimately the overall leader Dillon Byrne from the VCUK Velochampion team held off all challenges to emerge as the overall winner, with Morton in a likely seventh position ahead of the release of the final General Classification.
McNally Swords Cycling Club opened their Summer League on Wednesday last at Clonalvy/Garristown with an 8.6km Time Trial. This is a hugely popular league and goes on for most of the season and is held mid-week.
There was a bumper entry of 55 starters and it was a home victory, with Ciaran Handley taking the spoils in a time of 14:37:90. The next four riders home were from the promoting McNally Swords CC - Damien Donlon (14:55:08), Mark McCourt (15:35:53), Derek Humphries (15:53:87) and John Kinahan (15:55:49) followed by Fiach O’Shea (Velo Club Balrothery) in 16:02:42, David Wherity (Stamullen RC) in 16:03:60 and Ken Power of McNally Swords (16:10:82). This League continues every Wednesday night.
Few, if any cycling clubs can boast about promoting an 80th edition of their respective race, but Bohermeen Cycling Club will do just that next Sunday when they continue tradition and present the Waller Cup races at Bohermeen.
The day’s racing will have an early start time of 10.30, with the A4 + Ladies race being the first event of the day to get under way, and these riders will complete four laps of the 16.5km circuit. This race will be followed by the Under-16s (2 laps), U-14s (1 lap) and Under-12s who will race over a very short 5.5km in distance. The sign-on for all races will be at Bohermeen Community Centre.
Then in the afternoon at 1.30 it will be time for the Senior A1, A2 and A3 races to depart the start line, with the A1 race competing over eight laps, A2 seven and A3 six laps.
The winner of the Waller Cup last year was Craig McAuley from the Caldwell Cycles in Tyrone, but there is a very strong pool of top class riders out there at present.
Indeed, judging by the performances of riders in the Easter Bank Holiday weekend down at Ras Mumhan where just seconds were dividing a host of riders in the general classification with just one stage remaining, it would be anyone’s guess who will lift the coveted Waller Cup.