Cousins At War In Time Trial
Time Trial 2 on Wednesday 15th April 2009
A damp miserable evening greeted the 21 cyclists who took part in the second time trial league event at Maguiresbridge last Wednesday evening and due to the evening condition, times were slow for some but others had improved their times, compared to their times at their last event on St Patrick's Day (17th March)
Fintona man Fergus McGirr was the first man off and and returned a time of 26 minutes and 11 seconds which was seven seconds faster than his last on the same TT course. McGirr held the lead for most of the event and at the end of the evening his time give him 3rd place overall.
Lakeland Club veteran Ken Dunlop was second man to follow McGirr but he failed to overhaul McGirr along the way. Two Lakeland cyclists followed each other namely Keith Johnston (5th Off) amd Niall Armstrong (6th Off) and even though they started one minute apart, the latter pulled 38 seconds back on Johnston.
With a mixture of Lakeland CC and Omagh Wheelers cyclists taing off on the start line, the first and only lady, Julie Mulligan (Omagh Wheelers) was following Brendan Fee (Lakeland CC) but was unable to make any in-roads on Fee and seen last week road winner, Mark Kavanagh past her along the road to Tempo, with Kavanagh's time of 28 minutes 39 seconds giving him 14th place overall and he improved his time of nearly three minutes compared to his time on St Patrick's Day.
The next rider after Kavanagh who finish inside the top 10 was Edna Harper from Omagh Wheelers and finish 8th overall and following Harper on the road was A McGrath (Omagh Wheelers) who finish 11th with Sean Fee (Lakeland CC) finishing 12th overall and their times were just one second apart.
Still with five competitors still to start, two of these were from Omagh Wheelers and three from the Lakeland Club. Fifth last off was Seamus Keenan (Omagh Wheelers) followed by Kenny Donnell and here Keenan had the edge on Donnell and took fourth place overall, with Donnell having to settle for fifth spot.
With the absence of Veteran rider Kenny Boylan, who was away on warm weather training, the battle came down to the two Dunlop cousins in the club. The elder cousin, Ray was 3rd last off followed by John paul Connolly (Omagh Wheelers) with Ray's cousinn Dane the last man off.
With Connolly stuck in the middle, he did not see any sighting of Ray infront and had the pressure of the first year senior Dane Dunlop behind him and see the fast pace of Dane overtake him along the way.
Ray, who has been racing for over ten years in the Lakeland Cycling Club, had the speed and power to hold off his yoiunger cousin and had a better time by 18 seconds at the end of the event over Dane. Ray's winning time was 24 minutes and six seconds which give him first place overall, while Dane had to settle for seconds place.
*** Result of Maguiresbridge/Tempo 10 mile Time Trial
All Lakeland CC members except where stated
Pl. Name Club Time (Min : Secs)
1. Ray Dunlop 24 : 06
2. Dane Dunlop 24 : 24
3. Fergus McGirr Fintona CC 26 : 11 1st Visitor
4. Seamus Keenan Omagh Wheelers 26 : 36
5. Kenny Donnell 27 : 15
6. Eugene Power Omagh Wheelers 27 : 22
7. John Paul Connolly Omagh Wheelers 27 : 32
8. Edna Harper Omagh Wheelers 27 : 33
9. Keith Johnston 27 : 36
10. Niall Armstrong 27 : 58
11. A McGrath Omagh Wheelers 28 : 01
12. Sean Fee 28 : 02
13. Mark McAleer Omagh Wheelers 28 : 11
14. Mark Kavanagh 28 : 39
15. Ken Dunlop 28 : 42
16. Paul McCrory Omagh Wheelers 28 : 52
17. Brendan Fee 29 : 32
18. Marius Leonard 29 : 36
19. John Quinn Omagh Wheelers 29 : 46
20. Julie Mulligan Omagh Wheelers 30 : 18 1st Lady
21. Philip Caldwell Omagh Wheelers 32 : 14
Results
| Pos | Cyclist | Club | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Raymond Dunlop | LCC | 0:24:06 |