Massive weekend for such a small club

Published by admin on April 3, 2017

Killinchy CC held their first open road race on the 1st April 2017 and with this being a new race on the Cycling Ireland calendar the club were worried that the numbers would be few and it would turn out to be a small affair, however the A4 class was sold out with a reserve in place and the other three categories were well filled with riders travelling as far as Donegal to race.
The build up to the day and on the day was nerve wrecking for those involved in ensuring the event ran smoothly, but with the sun shining and riders arriving in their droves it was to turn out to be a cracker of a day for the whole club.
With PSNI, lead cars, MC outriders and dozens of Marshals the racing started at 10.15 with A2’s rolling out to the green flag, then with a 2min scratch it was the A1’s, then at 3min it was the A3 and juniors and finally 3min after that the A4’s heading off to start their race. It didn’t take the racers long to get up to speed as the first lap for every category was the fastest of the day and then it started to settle down with several trying to get the odd break going (or was it to test the others legs and strengths within their respective field).
With the A4’s completing 4 laps of the lumpy circuit and the uphill finish it was a fast affair with the group staying together for the duration of the race, with exception of Phil Doyle (KCC) trying to go solo with 8miles to go, only to get caught within the last kilometre, were the field came across the finishing crossroads in a tight group that would only be split by those that the power and strength in their legs to sprint uphill to the finish line.
A4 top three – Joshua Daly – VC Iveagh
Sean McCourt – VC Glendale
Scott Maitland – Killinchy CC (Host Club)

The other three categories had an extra two laps of the circuit which was starting to show it’s toil on some riders as they began to fatigue and fade pulling out along the route, however those that trained hard over the winter months was starting to show their strengths by dominating their field and sitting at the front pushing on the pace and amongst these were the junior riders who just seem to be getting stronger and stronger every race, and when it came down to the bunch sprint for the A3 & juniors race it was an all junior affair with them taking the top three places

A3 & Juniors top three – Harvey Barnes – East Tyrone
Xeno Young – Powerhouse
Brendan Flannigan – Powerhouse

Finally it was the main race of the day with some big hitters attending this new race to see how would pan out amongst other more established race on the calendar and with a smaller field as what you would normally expect it didn’t disappoint as the field worked hard to stop any breaks, but it wasn’t good enough as the overall winner of the Balloo Inns cup went to A1 rider Lindsay Watson of Powerhouse with a winning time of 2hr 26min

A1/2 top three – Lindsay Watson – Powerhouse
Richard Maybin – Madigan
Aaron Parks – CCT

The club would like to say a massive thanks to all our sponsors who helped make this happen – Balloo Inns, McCanns of Killinchy, Bells Centra, Paul Johnston Services, Chain Reaction Cycles & MODA

On Sunday 02/04/17 our Junior mountain bike rider Drew Armstrong represented the club at the first round of the Vitus Enduro Series, where he took the overall win in his category and finishing a very respectable 11th overall out of 200+ entries.

Thanks to The Belgium Project and Richard Cowan for the photos: