Underage Cyclists Show Promise
Time Trial 1 on Wednesday 1st April 2009
The first of the Lakeland Cycling Club was held from Five Points last Wednesday evening and among the 19 competitors who took part were four new underage members. The new members, namely James Stephens (Under 14), Lloyd Seaman, Josh Elliott and Cormac McLoughlin ( all Under 16) have set good times for their first competitive event in the Club.
A watchful eye will be kept on these four during the season and it is expected that as the season progresses, they will be setting personal best times and could be battling with the more seasoned Lakeland members for a top three prize.
First man off the start line was former All Ireland Veterans Road Race champion, Robbie Bryson and with his time of 25 minutes and three seconds, he lead for most of the event. Joe Morris from the visiting Omagh Wheelers was third off and came close to topple Bryson from the top but lost out by seven seconds.
Under 16 category cyclist Lloyd Seaman was tasting his first time trial and with a long summer league season to go, he came in with a good time which give him 15th place. James Stephens (Under 14) was happy with his time and is hopeful of pushing his older competitors to their limit in the time trials this season.
Making a season comeback in 2009 is Mark Kavanagh but sees an uphill battle to get into the top ten but is hopeful of doing better times before long and will make a late run to gain top ten finishes each week. Following Kavanagh on the road was Eugene Power (Omagh Wheelers) and here he posted the seventh best overall time of the evening.
Best new novice from 2008, Alan Magee was the third last man off but had the two big guns following him, namely Ray Dunlop and Kenny Boylan. This did not deter Magee and was very surprise by his time and this give him 10th place over all.
With Dunlop and Boylan to battle along the road, Dunlop was in an angry mood and not let Boylan to gain the top spot on the evening and his anger showed as he claimed the win over Boylan by just 23 seconds
On Wednesday 8th April the club will be holding a 25 mile road race and this event it will be a handicap event. The handicap system of races allows the lesser mortals in racing the chance of glory in winning a race ahead of the other cyclists. Usually in these events there are two or three groups of cyclists and each group are separated by minutes and even at times seconds. This depends on the race distance.
15th April will see the Lakeland members back at Maguiresbridge to take part in the second 10 mile time trial league but as reported last week some of the members will be missing as they are away on Spring Training in Majorca, so this will give the other members a chance some extra points in the league.
There are no results in the database for this event.