Glens glory for league leader Matthew

Ryan Connor (Irish Road Club) was first over the line in both events although he won't count for the trophy or league points as he isn't currently a BRC club member.

Instead it will be Matthew Brennan, who finished second in the Glens race, who will collect the silverware and take over the series lead.

Wednesday's Glens race attracted 16 starters, which was quite encouraging considering it is probably the hardest course on the club race calendar.

The riders went off in three groups and they faced a hilly course from Broughshane to Carnlough, Waterfoot and then up the six miles climb of Glenariff glen before the fast sweep down through Cargan, Martinstown and Rathkenny and the final miles in the Ballygarvey road to Broughshane.

Three riders were almost two minutes clear as they approached the finish where Ryan Connor (Irish Road Club) was first home after one hour 39 minutes 25 seconds racing. Matthew Brennan was second and Bann Valley visitor Martin Robb third.

Sean Wright led in a group of four riders 1 minute 55 seconds behind for fourth place with David Laverty (Bann Wheelers) fifth and Sam Davidson sixth (7) Steven McNeilly all at 1.55 (8) David Dougan (9) Mark McCullough at 3.45 (10) Alan Blair at 9.20 (11) Paul Patterson (12) Maeve Savage (13) Sean Kelly (Bann Valley) all at 9.20 (14) Beresford Millar at 16.25 (15) John Maxwell at 19.15

The youth's five miles road race from Glenariff to Martinstown was won by Adam Kerr in 13 minutes 29 seconds with Emma Gordon second at 61 seconds.

APR

Ryan Connor was again first home in Saturday's Australian Pursuit race which started at Slaght corner and covered three laps of the Caddy circuit, a total of 26 miles.

There was a return to the traditional, individual starting order for this race but it wasn't long before groups started to come together.

However it wasn't until the last lap that Connor's group got to the front end of the race but once in place there was never going to be any doubt who would win.

The Ahoghill rider led in this front group of eight riders and took the honours in 63 minutes 3 seconds from Sean Wright with Phoenix veteran and BRC associate member Dermot Hughes third. (4) Steven Workman (5) Colin Scullion (6) Alan Blair (7) Matthew Brennan (8) Declan Butler (Michelin) all same time (9) Martin Robb (Bann Valley) (10) Brian Geddis (11) Sam Campbell (Bann Valley) at 2 minutes 11 seconds (12) Beresford Millar (13) Maurice Carruthers (14) Sean Kelly (Bann Valley) (15) Tom Douds (16) Harry Thompson all at 5.16 (17) Richard Wilson (18) Steven Carruthers at 9.37 (19) Maeve Savage (20) Martin Ruddy (21) Clive Morris all at 11 minutes 03 seconds.

Many thanks to all those marshals and helpers who gave up their morning club run to assist at Saturday’s race; your help is much appreciated by the competitors.

LEAGUES UPDATE

Matthew Brennan now is the clear leader in the road racing league having scored maximum points in two of the four races held to date.

Matthew has 25 points with David Dougan second on 23 and Mark McCullough third with 22. (4) Sean Wright 17 (5) Alan Blair 15 (6) Sam Davidson 14 points.

The next round will be held at Clough on 27th July. There are a total of seven rounds with a rider’s best score from six rounds to count. This is to allow for competitors who have to do their turn on the marshalling Rota.

Steven Workman leads the APR mini series with just the Ahoghill round on 21st July to come. Steven has 15 points with Matthew Brennan scoring well in this competition too. He has 14 points while Sean Wright and Philip Bremner are equal third on 10 points. (5) Mark McCullough 9 (6) Colin Scullion 6 points.

CALENDAR

Wednesday, July 7, Ballymena Road Club will hold their Gardiner cup 10 miles time trial at Woodgreen with the first rider scheduled to start at 7pm.

The Gardiner cup will go to the winner of the handicap section. The trophy is in memory of one of the club’s early timekeepers Mr. Frank Gardiner.

There is no club race next week because of the annual Twelfth holidays with racing resuming on Wednesday 21st July with the Ahoghill Australian pursuit race at 7pm.

There is also a lack of open race action in Northern Ireland at the present time too. Last weekend the only racing scheduled locally was Sunday’s Tommy Givan 50 miles Ulster Championship time trial at Woodgreen and this in fact was postponed on the morning of the race because of safety concerns caused by the adverse weather conditions.

There are no open events listed for the next two weekends either, in fact the next road race action will be the Ards club’s Portaferry three day event from Friday 23rd July to Sunday 25th July.

However Ballymoney cycling club are holding an inter club, two day, three stage race for A3 and A4 licence holders. The event, Rs Loughguile, is a trial event with the hope that it will be staged as a full open event next year. The event comprises a 30 miles road race on Saturday starting at 10.30 am with a 3.3 miles time trial at 2.30pm. On Sunday there is a 36 miles road race starting at 2.15pm.

The Sign-on is on Saturday from 9.00am at the Millennium Centre, Lough Road, Loughguile. Entry fee for the event is 10. Entry is restricted to a maximum of sixty riders

Track racing is on the calendar, however, at Orangefield in Belfast for Tuesdays 13th 20th and 27th July. This will suit Ballymena RC’s Mark McCullough who was a member of the Ulster team which took part in Saturday’s International track meeting at Sundrive in Dublin.

It was Ulster riders who dominated the meeting with Terry Mackin (Banbridge) winning the flying 200 metre Time Trial. Mackin's time of 11.96 set a new National outdoor record, the first rider ever under 12 seconds. Mark McCullough was 22nd with his time of 13.16 seconds beating Philip Bremner’s 2009 Ballymena RC record (13.20 seconds) by 0.04 of a second!

In the 500 metre standing start time trial, it was Martyn Irvine`s turn to post a National Record, with 36.23 seconds.

McCullough recorded 40.84 seconds for 27th place and another BRC club record for the distance. The previous best time in the club’s record book was recorded by Gareth Johnston in 1999 and stood at 41.77 seconds.

YOUTH NEWS

Craig Crawford, of TSC Racing, who recently won the David McCall Foundation Ulster Youth Road Race League series, and club mate Aaron Swan made the long journey to Ashbourne in Derbyshire to take part in the British Schools Time Trial U-14 Championship at Darley Moor race circuit.

In blustery conditions the boys did their schools Dunclug College and Cambridge House Grammar proud with Craig fininshing 4th and Aaron 10th.

The boys wish to thank W Allen Meats, DC Autos, Crawford Contracts and McBurney Transport for their sponsorship.