Road Race 4
Wednesday 25th June 2008 at 7:00 pm
Boylan Unbeatable
On Wednesday last, road race four in the Lakeland CC calendar took place. The 38 mile race is the toughest race of the year with two tight climbs thrown in for good measure.
The race started at Silverhill and went out to Derrygonnelly where it turned left in the town and up over Knockmore, the first big climb of the race. The race came down off Knockmore to Cashel and turned left to Belcoo, where it went left and left again to go up the second climb, the Devil's S’s, and on down to Boho and on to finish at the top of a hill near where this road meets the main Derrygonnelly road.
There were only 13 riders at this race with only one 'scratch' rider, Kenny Boylan, so there were only two groups with a five minute time gap between them to give the lead group a chance to get over Knockmore before being caught.
At Derrygonnelly the gap was down to three minutes with Kenny Boylan doing most of the work on the way out into a strong headwind. On the climb over Knockmore, Kenny broke away with Glen McCleery managing to hang onto his wheel. When these two were over the top, Kenny turned around and went back down the hill again to meet the second group, then turned and came back over the top with them and pulled them on the downhill at speeds of over 40mph down to Cashel. It is usual practice in a tour for those who reach the top of a climb first to turn and go back down to rejoin the rest but this is probably the first time it has ever been done in a race!
A mile after Cashel the whole race came together as the front group were caught. Shortly after this Roger Monaghan and Raymond Pauley went on a breakaway but were caught at Belcoo at the start of the second climb.
On this hill Kenny Boylan again showed his dominance and left everyone. A small group with Neil Armstrong, Sean Fee, Glen McCleery and Wesley Foster managed to break clear up the Devil's S’s and this group stayed away over the top.
On the descent, Glen made a bid to get clear in the race for second place, with Kenny now too well clear to catch. He built up a small gap, but with Neil and Wesley working together, they caught him by the bottom of the hill to the finish. Neil then attacked on the hill to come in second behind Kenny, with Wesley in third, Glen in fourth and Sean Fee finishing well in fifth. A great result for the Lisbellaw riders, with three men from the 'hard rocks' in the top four places.
Thanks to the marshals who had to travel a lot of miles to cover all the road junctions.
RESULT OF ROAD RACE 4
1. Kenny Boylan
2. Neil Armstrong
3. Wesley Foster
4. Glen McCleery
5. Sean Fee
6. Roger Monaghan
7. Paul McCorry
8. Raymond Pauley
9. John McManus
10. Brendan Fee
11. Peter Martin
12. Eddie Carson
13. Alan Magee