Gollogly and Lennon take the honours in FPM Summer Cycling League

A group of Cuchulainn Cycling Club riders pictured at the recent Tour of Louth

As the summer continues so to does the FPM Summer Cycling League. At this stage seven of the 20 rounds have been completed, the most recent being held on the Carrickmacross-Ardee circuit.

In the first race group four managed to stay away from the pursuers with Declan Gollogly taking the win ahead of Seamus Ward and Johnny McCabe. Meanwhile in race two, Shane Lennon took the win ahead of Trevor Kane and Cronan O’Shuaghnessey.

Currently Mark Duffy sits atop of the league table for race one, while Trevor Kane leads race two. In overall terms Kane has a meagre four points to spare over Duffy. In third position is Mickey Stokes, with fourth place being occupied jointly by Alan Bingham and Declan Gollogly. With well over half the league still to come and the impact of summer holidays the final table could have a completely different look.

Meanwhile in the Bike Station Women’s League Annette Dolan continues to dominate winning the most recent round, a 10 mile time trial in a time of 25:33, ahead of Janet Conlon and in joint third Kathleen Byrne and Sarah Fagan. With three rounds left Dolan leads from Celine McPhilips and Helen Bennett.

Last Sunday saw a large number of Cuchulainn’s leisure cyclists head to Wicklow for the biggest sportive of the year, the Wicklow 200. This event sees the riders tackle 200km of tough mountainous roads in Ireland’s garden county. It tackles climbs such as the Sally Gap and Shay Elliott. While the finishing times varied between the Dundalk men and women, a good day was had by all.

While Cuchulainn’s leisure cyclists were in Wicklow the club’s racing cyclists headed to Navan for the Sean Nolan Grand Prix. In the A3 race Stephen Carry took sixth position. This is Carry’s first result as an A3 having started the season as an A4. Also in the A3 race Aimhirghin O Brannagain had a strong race finishing in the main bunch in the same time as the winner. Also in action was Fran Egan in his first A4 race of the season. Annette Dolan was competing in the women’s race, but herself and another competitor were unlucky to take a wrong turn and add a further 10km to an 82km race.

Annette triumphs in women’s cycling league

The Bikestation Women’s League winners, L-R: Celine McPhilips (3rd), Annette Dolan (1st) and Fiona Rogers (2nd)

After the torrential rain of last week, dry skies awaited the ladies for the first round proper of the Bikestation Women’s Cycling League.

Over 20 riders signed on and were split into four different groups. Group 1 saw a unique pairing in Mairead Caraher and Maeve McCabe in that Maeve thought Mairead PE in Ballybay secondary school back in her schooling days. The duo worked to good effect and were last to be caught by the express train that was Annette Dolan and Fiona Rogers. These two started in the last group and quickly shed their accomplices to catch all in front of them. In the sprint for the line Annette took a commanding win ahead of Fiona. Celine McPhilips led the next group home, taking third place ahead of Clones cyclist Tracy McConky.

Moynalty Cycling Club riders Helen Bennett and Bronagh Gaffney took the next two spots. The race was a great success and a number of newcomers, such as Martina Carey and Nicola Jordan enjoyed great debuts. The action continues every Tuesday night for the next five weeks.

Meanwhile, the FPM Accountants Summer Cycling League is up to round five, the most recent race being the tough circuit that finishes at the Long Woman’s Grave. In Race 1 underage rider Lorcan Kilkenny took his second win of the league beating Shaun Paul O’Shaughnessy and Thomas McElroy. In race 2 Tómas McCabe took a hard fought win ahead of Alan Bingham, with Nathan McGreehan in third.

At this stage at the  top of the leader board is Trevor Kane from race 2. Trevor has a slim three points to spare over Mickey Stokes, with Mark Duffy a further two points back. Things are all very tight with only 10 points separating the first 12 riders. In total 119 riders have scored points at this stage and with 13 events to go it is too early top start putting your money down.

Finally, last Thursday the FPM League took a one week hiatus for the Louth Road Race Championships. The 52km course saw the riders head out to Carrick, across to Ardee and home. With the An Post Rás starting this Sunday a lot of the club’s riders chose to skip the event, however this didn’t make the racing any easier. Over 50 riders signed on for the mass start event and as the riders left Carrickmacross a breakaway group emerged with all of Cuchulainn’s top junior talent on show with Nathan McGreehan and brothers Aimhirghin and Cuirithir O Brannagain present. These three, along with Tómas McCabe, David Holland, Richard Murphy and Peter Tomany drove the break along to establish a gap over the main bunch, which stretched out to just over a minute by the end. In the sprint for the line Nathan took the win ahead of Tómas in second and David Holland in third.

Mark to shave his beard after 10 years in aid of cancer research

Local man Mark Duffy is set to shave his beard off for the first time in 10 years in aid of cancer research on Friday November 1^st.

Mark, from Belfry Gardens, first grew his beard in 2003 and has been letting it grow untrimmed since the start of August ahead of the big shave in a few weeks’ time.

Not only has Mark pledged to shave his beard, but he has also promised to remain clean shaven for the entire month of November.

Commenting on his fundraising site, Mark said: “I originally wanted to do it for prostate cancer, but as my mam was diagnosed with breast cancer this year, I wanted to do something for it also. So I have chosen to support NUI Galway, as their research will not only benefit breast cancer but also prostate cancer. It would mean alot if you could support this and help in cancer research.”

To date Mark has raised €450 of his target but you can donate or read more about his journey at 10yearshave.me