Aaron adds another Irish title

There were three events with a time trial and criterium held on Saturday followed by a road race on Sunday.

Once again Aaron Swan, from Clough, the 2009 under 12 Irish youth champion, proved his worth on the big stage and won the criterium championship for under 13 riders this time around.

Aaron also finished second in the road race and was fifth in the time trial.

Craig Crawford and Adam Kerr were in action in the under 14 title races.

Craig was second in the time trial, fourth in the criterium and sixth in the road race.

Adam Kerr had a 22nd place in both the time trial and criterium events and was 19th in the road race. Well done to all the boys for a great weekend's results.

WILL HENRY CUP

Ballymena Road Club–Scott Roof Tiles cyclists held their final club road race of the season at Glarryford last Wednesday evening.There was a field of 25 riders for the senior and junior race, for the Will Henry cup, with another four riders in the youth race for the Sandy Spence trophy.

The starting handicap only finally unwound for the start of the fourth and final five miles lap and after a bit of a reshuffle on the climb to Millar's corner, for the last time, a group of 13 contested the final sprint finish of the season.

Mark McCullough again proved best in the gallop and won the race for a second successive season. His winning time was 49 minutes 30 seconds.

Ryan Connor (Irish road club) was a close second and Matthew Brennan third. Matthew had already done enough before the race started to win the season long road racing league series for the William Smyth cup.

Other placings: (4) Colin Scullion (5) Sam Davidson (6) Stephen McNeilly (7) Simon Taggart (8) Tommy Wilson (9) Martin Robb (Bann Valley) (10) Ryan Currie (11) Martin Ruddy (12) Sammy Kerr (13) Alan Blair all same time 49.30. (14) Clifford Grant at 25 seconds (15) Harry Thompson at 34 seconds (16) Brian Geddis at 48 seconds (17) Nigel Kernohan at 1 minute 26 seconds (18) Maurice Carruthers (19) Millar Montgomery (20) Bobby Currie all at 2.34 (21) Steven Carruthers at 7.07.

SNADY SPENCE CUP

The one lap, five miles, youth race for the Sandy Spence cup was also a close contest with Adam Kerr just beating Chris Surgeoner by 3 seconds, with a winning time of 14 minutes 43 seconds. Emma Gordon was third at 19 seconds (4) Josh Barr at 1 minute 24 seconds.

ROAD RACING LEAGUE

Matthew Brennan, who was runner up to Tommy Wilson, in last year's road racing league series made no mistake this season and won the series with a total of 49 points.

Wednesday night's winner Mark McCullough was second overall with 39 points while Sam Davidson had an excellent first season with the Road Club and finished third overall with 27 (4) Alan Blair 26 (5) Stephen McNeilly 24 (6) David Dougan 23. Altogether thirty riders registered at least one point in the series.

BALLYDONAGHY '10'

Last Thursday night's 10 miles time trial league event took place at Ballydonaghy, where Thomas Martin recorded a winning time of 20 minutes 37 seconds.

Ballycastle veteran John Madden was second with 20.53 while Ballymena Road Club – Scott Roof Tiles – rider Conor McAllister was only six seconds slower in third place with 20.59.

On Sunday Conor McAllister was in action in the National classic league event in Donegal. Adam Armstrong took the honours with McAllister finishing sixth.

FUN TOURS BEGIN

The popular Ballymena Road Club series of fun cycle tours commences this Saturday 4th September from Rex Bonar House at 9.30am.

Once again the tours will receive support from Ballymena Borough Council who will host a presentation at the end of the series.

The normal well tried and tested format will continue for this year's series.

The participants will be divided into at least two groups with the more experienced riders scheduled to cover about 50 miles on their tour.

Club members will welcome newcomers to the touring section's group where the average speed will be kept to around 15mph.

This speed isn't exactly slow for novices so anyone who turns up needs to have been doing some training in preparation for the event.

Experienced club members are asked to make themselves available as "traveling marshalls".

They need to be fit to do this job as it means riding ahead of the group, to cover junctions and corners and then staying in position until everyone goes past, and then cycling back up to the front again ready for the next turn. This will certainly be good training for those volunteers!

Certificates and medals will be awarded to the successful participants with five tours earning bronze, eight for silver while eleven wins gold.

Participants are advised that crash helmets must be worn. They are also advised to dress appropriately for the weather conditions and to bring a rain jacket, spare tube, food and money.

It goes without saying that bikes must be fully road worthy. With this in mind club member Jim Burns has offered to do a "bicycle health check" prior to Saturday's first tour.

If you are a newcomer and aren't sure about the road worthiness of your machine then please contact Jim on 07838 193 888, before Saturday, and he will look over your bike, and carry out any minor repairs or adjustments.

There is a minimum one off entry fee of 5 to cover the series with the donations going to two charities, one of which is the Chernobyl children's appeal NI.

Sunday 12th September: The Ulster 25 miles time trial championships are scheduled to be held on the Woodgreen course from 9am, provided, of course, that the current resurfacing works on the A26 dual carriageway (which incidentally are being carried out by BRC club sponsor Northstone NI) are completed.

This event also gives BRC the opportunity to complete its club race programme as they hope to hold the Ernie Mark cup 25 miles time trial in conjunction with the 50.

Also on Sunday 12th September Ballymena Road Club's touring section will hold their final "away for the day tour" when their "last resort, tour of the harbours" will leave from the duck pond in Ballymoney at 10am.