Fantastic fifth place for Healy in wilds of Donegal
WITH two mid-week league races available before the weekend even approaches, yet another one commenced during the week as the ever growing ‘Mark Mullen Summer League’ promoted by Drogheda Wheelers returned over six laps of the usual 6.7km course around Donore Village.
Like most leagues, time gaps are placed between each group at the start and the riders then must attempt to make up the deficit.
The competitors on Monday managed to make up all the gaps, except one, as Shane Murphy from Dublin Wheelers set off in the front group, attacked on his own after just a mere 3 kilometres and managed to keep this gap to win the first round of the league. Liam Hanley, a Navan native was next over the line, quickly followed by Sean Landers from Stamullen in third.
Local man Simon Jones, riding as part of the UCD team, finished fourth and the local success continued with Stamullen powerhouse, Gary Gorman in 7th. Drogheda Wheelers trio, Barry Hughes, James McMorrow and Brendan Dolan rounded off the top ten!
While in the underage league, Niall Browne from the host club claimed a fine victory, ahead of his teammate Bryan Keelan in 2nd. Round 3 of the Ardee league took place on Tuesday evening, followed by the Cuchulainn ‘Bike Station League’ on Thursday.
As the dust has well settled on the Rás Tailteann 2018 by now, the first stage race took place since then over the weekend, in the shape of the ‘Newry 3-Day’.
The race began on Friday evening, but stage 1 had to be stopped and neutralised to the finish, after an on-circuit car collision meant the race could not pass. After the unfortunate events of the night before, the competitors set off on the 128.5km stage 2, now chasing the yellow leader’s jersey and it was here, that two members of Stamullen RC came very close to just that. Neil Delahaye, one of Cycling Irelands most prestigious coaches and riding as part of the Stamullen team, finished in fourth place, just a mere 50 seconds down on the stage winner.
His teammate and local veteran, Craig Sweetman, continued his successful run, taking the next spot over the line, with another Stamullen guest, Simon Jones, in fifteenth. This meant that the Stamullen team had two riders in the top five and showed themselves to be one of the strongest teams in the race. The success continued on stage 3 on Sunday, with Sweetman rolling across the line in 8th place, ahead of Stamullen guests Simon Jones and Neil Delahaye in 18th and 19th respectively.
Sean Nolan, a junior from the Navan Club, put in a strong performance to finish in seventh place on the final stage, after being in the leading group for much of the race. Neil Delahaye and Craig Sweetman finished the race in fourth and fifth overall with Simon Jones in 14th, along with this Delahaye took a superb second in the points classification and the whole team finished second in that category. This was a fantastic weekend for the Stamullen club and for all the guesting riders.
Elsewhere Dermot Healy from Drogheda Wheelers took part in the ‘Donegal Atlantic Way Ultra Race’ over the weekend, which challenges the competitors to cycle 555km in the shortest possible time.
This can be completed in a solo effort, or in teams of two or four but Duleek native Healy faced the challenge alone.
He set off from Letterkenny at 1pm on Friday and in a time of 21 hours, 11 minutes and 38 seconds, Dermot entered back into Letterkenny after travelling 555km of the most difficult roads the county had to offer, including the dreaded Mamore Gap and Glangesh climbs.
This time placed him in fifth in the singles category. Healy was congratulated by all his club members and he also paid thanks to his fantastic back up crew, who stayed behind him throughout the night as he cycled. This is a huge achievement for Healy and the whole Wheelers club as he completed the most difficult cycling challenge in the country.
Next weekend is the most important event on the Irish Cycling racing calendar, as the Irish National Championships for both seniors and juniors takes place in County Sligo and after lots of recent local success, there could be even more reason to celebrate very soon!