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| UWA Road Race at Aghagallon on 3rd April 2011 |
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O'Neill Takes Rnd 2 of SportActive UWA RR League Valerie O'Neill (Phoenix CC) won the second round of the Sportactive UWA Road Race league held at Aghagallon by Clann Eireann Cycling Club. There was another great turnout of riders for this event, which saw a limit group of nine riders and a scratch group of twelve being formed. The limit group was given a three minute lead over the scratch, which would prove difficult to bring back over the six laps of the short course.
 The limit group had the assistance of special guest riders, Tommy Lamb (Chairman Cycling Ulster) and Sean McNicholl (OnYerBikes.com), who both stayed out of the racing, but helped get the limit group of riders with little racing experience, organised and working as a group. This had the knock on effect of making things difficult for scratches, who were not riding well together.
This was clearly shown in the times, as at the end of the first lap, scratch had only managed to pull back about 15 to 20 seconds. Cycling Ulster's Talent Officer followed the Scratch group.  There was some aggressive riding from scratch with attacks coming from Mandy Collie (Team Basso Today) and Geraldine Gill (Bohermeen), but the decisive move came on on the third lap when Valerie O'Neill (Phoenix CC), Therese Smyth (Phoenix CC) and Mary Hunter (Dromara CC) broke away and started their pursuit of the limit group..
The strong riding of Amy Brice (Phoenix CC), Kelly Donnelly (Spires CC) and the Ards CC duo of Gillian Orr and Heather Gould by this point had reduced the size of the limit group to just this four, with Roe Valley's Kerry Boyd and Laura Maxwell not far behind.
O'Neill, Smyth and Hunter worked relentlessly over the next few two laps and finally made the bridge to the four lead riders on the last lap, with the remainder of the scratch group just down the road.
 Coming to the finish it was a four way sprint, with Valerie O'Neill (Phoenix CC) taking the win from Kelly Donnelly (Spires CC), with Mary Hunter (Dromara CC) just piping Therese Smyth (Phoenix CC) for 3rd. Amy Brice (Phoenix CC ) took 5th and Gillian Orr (Ards CC) just claimed 6th from teammate Heather Gould, who is showing great improvement and was also riding on race wheels she hand built herself….Pink Chris King hubs on white DTSwiss Rims to match the bike….perhaps we have a new Cycling Ulster Mechanic….Sean had better watch out…
Last year's winner Ciara Mulholland (Clann Eirrean) lead home the rest of the bunch ahead of Mandy Collie (Team Basso Today) and Rachael Withers (St.Raphael Road&Track Team).
 
Once again many thanks to Clann Eireann for supporting the UWA Road Race League. The Next Sportactive UWA road race is the McCann Cup on Sunday 17th April. A club competition is required as a minimum. One day licences cannot be issued for the event. |
| Last Updated on Tuesday, 28 February 2012 09:35 |
