Over 40 Cuchulainn riders take part in the An Post Tour of Meath

Some of the Cuchulainn Cycling Club members who took part in the An Post Tour of Meath

On Sunday last over 40 members of Dundalk’s Cuchulainn Cycling Club descended on Trim to participate in the An Post Tour of Meath, a 160km cycle taking in the finest scenery and hills of the county. While the tour started in beautiful sunshine along the way they did meet with some showers and wind from time to time, which made for tired legs. The food stop at the 100km mark was a welcome break, giving everyone a chance to refuel with some pasta and sandwiches before tackling the final stretch for home.

With just three rounds remaining in the FPM Accountants Summer Cycling League the top of the table is quite tight. Trevor Kane, who suffered what may turn out to be a very costly puncture in the most recent round, leads the league with a point to spare over Alan Bingham. Stamullen’s Gary Gorman is a further four points back with Richard McMullen in fourth and Mickey Stokes in fifth. The final result may even be dictated by holidays as both Kane and Bingham are due to miss a number of rounds.

Road racing was held on Sunday in Donore, where the race contested 13 laps of a 6.4km circuit for a total of 83km. Cuchulainn had a number of riders involved with Colm Quinn and Aidan Cunningham being very active on the day, featuring in a number of break aways. In the end it came down to one mass sprint and Nathan McGreehan, fresh from his Junior Tour ride, claimed second unplaced junior.

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.