Delaney’s bubble bursts
STAMULLEN Road Club’s Cian Delaney, still on a high following his medal-winning exploits at the World Police & Fire Games, experienced heartache at the weekend after putting himself in a promising to take overall victory in the Stafford Wholesale 2-day, 3-stage race.
The action began on Saturday morning, with a lot of North East race cyclists travelled to the sunny South East to compete in the annual race promoted by Wexford Wheelers CC.
The opening 112km stage got under way that morning and was won in impressive style by 17-year-old Ben Walsh from the Nicolas Roche Performance team, with Delaney ninth, part of a six-man group that finished 14 seconds adrift of the winner.
Saturday evening saw stage two take place, a Hill Climb, and here Cian Sutcliffe from Aqua Blue CC took the honours, with Delaney in third place, 11 seconds further back. This meant that Sutcliffe took over the yellow jersey of race leader, with Delaney moving into second position.
Going into the final 100km stage on Sunday, it certainly was not the ‘sunny South East’ as the riders were greeted with absolutely miserable conditions throughout the day.
With 4km of racing remaining, all the top contenders were still in the leading group, but at this point there was huge disappointment for Delaney as he was unfortunate to puncture at a vital stage.
With the speed up in these final kilometres and a lot at stake, Delaney had to say goodbye to his chances of overall victory as his Stamullen teammate Arek Klus finished the stage in 11th place.
In the general classification a bitterly disappointed Delaney was ‘only’ eighth, with Klus taking 11th place.
One of the last really busy weekends of the season lies ahead, starting on Thursday night with the Leinster Hill Climb championships which are being promoted by Cuchulainn CC and taking place in the Cooley Mountains.
Then, on Saturday morning at Dunsany, Co Meath, the Leinster Council will host the Leinster Senior Road Race championships for all senior categories.
Events of the day will get
WHOLE NEW BALL GAME under way at 10:30am with the Senior A1-A2-A3-J race. This championship will be contested over five laps of a 17km circuit. The Senior A4 race depart the start line immediately afterwards. The sign-on for these events will be in the GAA Hall in Dunsany.
The All-Ireland Youth championships will also take place over the weekend (Saturday and Sunday) in Carlow and there will be championships for all underage categories from Under 11 years to Under 16s for both Boys and Girls. Each category will contest three separate disciplines - a criterium, a time trial and a road race.
Navan Road Club, Bohermeen CC, Drogheda Wheelers
CC, Moynalty CC, McNally Swords CC and Cuchulainn CC also boast st young riders who are capable- of securing a podium um finish in any of the mentionedoned age groups.