Kenny Wins Arduous Climb
Hill Climb 2 on Monday 16th June 2003
Brookeborough Hill Climb - The second Hill Climb of the season was a particularly arduous seven mile event up around the Knocks area, that occurred on Monday 16th June. The event began at Brookeborough at the start of the Brookeborough-Lisnaskea road and proceeded for a good three quarters of a mile along that road. The Hill Climb then took the first left for the Knocks mountain.
The road that the race turned onto is the Stranafeley Road and proceeds to a T-junction with the Knocks road along which is a brutally steep climb for approximately three miles.
It was at the start of this climb that Kenny Boylan had already caught his minute competitor, Wesley Foster.
On the steepest section of the climb, Kenny spun a very low inner front 39 gear up the climb to keep up his momentum. Kenny then reverted to his favourite big 53 outer front ring gear as the road climb flattens out near the top of the Knocks.
The race route swung left at the T-junction for another mile before taking the first left on the Knocks road for Parkadeil standing stone. It was at the T junction on the Knocks road that Kenny Boylan caught his three minute man, Raymond Pauley.
However Raymond did very well to concede only three minutes at this point of the Hill Climb to Kenny over such a difficult course given that Raymond has not been able to put in the miles of training he would previously have done due to work commitments. The final mile of the hillclimb on the first left turn of the Knocks road for Parkadeil standing stone, again steepens and Raymond Pauley lost another two minutes to Kenny Boylan along that stretch of road. At the top of the climb, a pigeons view of Upper Lough Erne and the rest of the county was there to refresh the competitors at the end of their ordeal. A well done goes to all the riders for the evening’s event and what is a hard person’s competition. Indeed the previous day, Frankie Flynn and Eddie Carson had just completed the weekend’s 200 mile round border trek.
A special thanks goes to Jeanette Pauley and Geraldine Lyons for marshalling the event and keeping the cyclists on the right roads.
One of the evening’s other marshals got lost in the maze of roads around the Knocks and it took something in the form of a treasure hunt to find him. The family were grateful to get him back. I like to know who says it’s women that don’t have a sense of a direction!
Results
| Pos | Cyclist | Club | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenny Boylan | LCC | 0:21:36 |
| 3 | Eddie Carson | LCC | 0:26:04 |
| 4 | Wesley Foster | LCC | 0:26:30 |
| 5 | Raymond Pauley | LCC | 0:26:39 |
| 6 | Frankie Flynn | LCC | 0:28:26 |