Eileen completes Championship hat-trick by winning 10 miles title

It was extremely wet for the race and Eileen’s winning time of 24 minutes 13 seconds was impressive, given the conditions, and was well ahead of silver medallist Keri Parton (Dromara) who clocked 24.52.

After her win Eileen said “I felt a lot of pressure going into the race having already won the 50 and the 25 Championships. I am really over the moon to get the hat-trick. It was great to see a bigger field of ladies racing today as well. Laura (Blair) rode it too and did 27 minutes 12 seconds.”

Just for good measure Ballymena RC under 16 rider Breandan McCavana was in the medals too. Breandan recorded 25.46 for silver; Rhys McKendry (Madigan) took gold with 25.24.

THREE-DAY RACE

There was a tie for the overall honours in last week’s Ballymena Road Club – Chain Reaction Cycles – three day race, with Matthew Brennan and Ryan Bankhead both amassing a total of 57 points.

Each of the three rounds at Randalstown, Woodgreen and Glarryford had different winners with Connor Young winning at Randalstown, Matthew Brennan winning at Woodgreen and Sean Wright taking the honours at Glarryford.

Connor Young got off to the best possible start when he led in a four rider breakaway group at the end of the “short circuit” event at Randalstown on Monday evening. This was a repeat of his win last season, when he went on to win the three day overall.

The entrants faced ten laps of the two miles per lap Ahoghill road, Branch Road, Portglenone road circuit. The short course didn’t allow for too big a handicap with an overall limit of three minutes 30 seconds from front to back. It was a tough course too with the hill on the Ahoghill road getting steeper each lap.

The scratch riders easily made up their handicap and then four of them broke clear of the field. In the end Young crossed the line in a time of 50 minutes 20 seconds. Harry Thompson took second with Simon Taggart third and Matthew Brennan fourth. These four were comfortably ahead of fifth placed Ryan Bankhead who led in the chasing group. Ryan Shaw took sixth followed by (7) Ryan Currie (8) Gary Reid (9) Clifford Grant (10) Richard Reid (11) Philip Morrison (12) Quinton McFall (13) Mark Wright (14) Breandan McCavana (15) John Shaw (16) Sam Campbell (Bann Valley) (17) Daryl Sempey (18) Colin Scullion (19) David Dougan (20) Tommy Wilson (21) Emma Smyth (22) Maurice Carruthers (23) Eileen Burns (24) Claire Gillespie (25) Laura Blair (26) John Maxwell.

Youth result at Randalstown. (1) Shaun Byrne (Bann Valley) 23.18 (2) Caolan Stuart 23.33 (3) Fergus Byrne (Bann Valley) same time (4) Joel McCavana 27.20

Tuesday’s action centred on the 5 miles time trial at Woodgreen. Matthew Brennan was fastest with 10 minutes 19 seconds with Ryan Bankhead, who was making a rare time trial appearance, second just two seconds slower with 10.21. Ryan Shaw kept up his challenge by finishing third with 10.26.

Time Trial handicap league leader Jason Burns recorded another personal best time of 10 minutes 28 seconds for fourth place. This also won the handicap section with a net time of 10 minutes 19 seconds.

(5) Harry Thompson 10.46 (6) and (7) Tommy Wilson and Clifford Grant both 10.57. (8) Eileen Burns 10.58 (9) Ryan Currie 11.03 (10) Philip Morrison 11.05 (11) Derek Dougan 11.15 (12) David Dougan 11.17 (13) Stephen Dempsey 11.35 (14) and (15) Quinton McFall and Martin Ruddy 11.38 (16) Mark Wright 11.42 (17) Emma Smyth 11.48 (18) Jim Burns 11.53 (19) Richard Reid 12.00 (20) Daryl Sempey 12.01 (21) John Maxwell 12.05 (22) Laura Blair 12.08 (23) Alan Blair 12.12 (24) Stephen Smyth 13.55

The final round of the three day race was the Sammy Gaston cup 25 miles road race, which was held over five laps of the Glarryford, Millar’s corner, Dunminning circuit on Wednesday evening.

The scratch group once again overcame their starting handicap and Sean Wright proved again that he has lost none of his sprinting skills to lead them home and win his second club race of the season, having been successful in the H and M Wilson cup event at Slaght on 28th May. Karl Taylor took second and Neil Millar third. None of these three counted in the three day overall result as they hadn’t ridden the other stages and it was fourth placed Ryan Bankhead, who earned maximum points on the night. Sean’s race winning time was 61 minutes 38 seconds.

(5) Quinton McFall (6) Matthew Brennan (7) Ryan Shaw (8) Richard Reid (9) Mark Wright (10) S McNeilly (Glens CC) (11) P Morrison (12) Stephen Smyth (13) Martin Ruddy (14) Ryan Currie (15) Alan Blair(16) John Shaw (17) Caolan Stuart (18) Breandan McCavana (19) Eileen Burns (20) Daryl Sempey (21) Clifford Grant (22) Emma Smyth (23) Harry Thompson (24) Stephen Dempsey (25) Tommy Wilson (26) David Dougan (27) John Maxwell (28) Laura Blair

The youth race winner at Glarryford was Joel McCavana who completed the one lap 5 miles race in 16 minutes 50 seconds.

Overall result of the three day race.

(1) and (2) Matthew Brennan and Ryan Bankhead 57 points each. (3) Ryan Shaw 52 (4) Harry Thompson 43 points (5) and (6) Ryan Currie and Quinton McFall 41 points each (7) Philip Morrison 39 (8) Clifford Grant 38.5 (9) Richard Reid 37 (10) Mark Wright 35 (11) Eileen Burns 30 (12) Tommy Wilson 28.5 (13) Daryl Sempey 25 (14) David Dougan 24 (15) Emma Smyth 22 (16) Stephen Smyth 15 (17) Alan Blair 14 (18) John Maxwell 12 (19) Laura Blair 11 points.

The Ballymena Borough Council trophy will be shared between Matthew Brennan and Ryan Bankhead. Both Matthew and Ryan registered the same overall score and both had the same number of “wins” – one each, the same second places – one each and the same third places.