Grey triumphs at National Championships for third time in four years

Martin Grey

For the third time in four years Cuchulainn Cycling Club’s Martin Grey has won the National Championships in his age category.

This year Martin took the gold medal in the 60-69 age group as part of the Irish Veteran Cyclists Association National Championships. Martin was active from the gun and was part of a five man group that went away early in the race. The group worked well together to establish a lead and in the final 15km Martin attacked to take a solo win, to add to his two other gold medals and a silver from 2013.

In a separate age category, Jimmy Flynn went agonisingly close to a medal when he was fourth man across the line in a close knit sprint. Brendan Dunne, Aidan Delaney, Damien Faulkner and Dale Copas all finished comfortably in the main bunch in their own races.

Open racing was held in Dunboyne, Co Meath on Sunday. The main race was 120km long and Cuchulainn’s Colm Quinn and Liam Dolan were racing. With 80km to go Dolan found himself in the day’s breakaway of 10 riders.

As the race drew to a close the break was quickly being brought back by the main bunch when Dolan managed to escape again with Sean McKenna of Dublin’s UCD and Alistair McCauley of Phoenix Cycling Club in Belfast. They stayed away to the line with McKenna taking the win ahead of McCauley and Dolan in third. In the support race both Tomás McCabe and Aidan Cunningham finished in the top 20

Dolan comes second in Moneymore

Cuchulainn’s Liam Dolan (right) was just pipped to the finish line by Belfast rider Mark Millar on Saturday

Cuchulainn Cycling Club came agonisingly close to taking its first outright win of the season when Liam Dolan was second in the Ciclisport Grand Prix in Moneymore on Saturday.

Dolan was active from the start and got into the main break after 10 miles of the 60 mile race. Team mates Colm Quinn and Alan Gray, back in the bunch, hindered any chase efforts to ensure the break maintained its advantage. On the final run into the finish Dolan attacked the break and got away with Belfast rider Mark Millar, who unfortunately had too much speed for Dolan in the sprint finish.

Both Gray and Quinn were racing again on Sunday in north Dublin, a 75 mile race which featured seven ascents of the dreaded Nag’s Head climb. Both had solid days to finish in the main bunch. Stephen Carry, FPM Accountants League Winner in 2013, was also racing in the A4 event and came home just outside the top 10.

Sunday also saw the start of the Irish Veterans’ Cycling Association season, a league that has seen much Cuchulainn success over recent years. In the main race former National Champions Sé Weston and Martin Grey finished in the top 10. In the second race Aidan Delaney, Dale Copas, Enda McKeown and Brendan Dunne all had successful debuts, despite a mix up with the actual location of the finish line.

Thursday April 10th also sees the start of the FPM Accountants Summer Cycling League. The 18 round league is the stalwart of bike racing in North East Leinster and has been extremely successful in developing up and coming riders. The League run on a handicap basis caters for all, as evident from the fact that the 2013 winner, Stephen Carry was cycling less then a year, yet won a competition that featured some of Ireland’s best road cyclists and An Post Rás participants. Details can be found at www.dundalkcycling.com