Ray Dunlop Sprints To Club Title
Club Championship Road Race on Wednesday 1st July 2009
Raymond Dunlop leads the way from Dane Dunlop
The Lakeland C.C. club championship, the one everyone wants to win, took place on Wednesday night. Missing from the championship were Kenny Boylan who had to attend the wife"s graduation in Belfast and also Kenny Dunlop who received a quick call to have all bikes and equipment loaded on a courier van for Wednesday night so as to be freighted out to Finland on Thursday. Kenny is the manager of the Irish Youth Olympic cycling squad who are travelling to European Youth Olympics in Finland later on in the month. The Championship was held over four laps of an eight mile circuit around Florencecourt. The race was a mass start with the exception of Raymond Dunlop, Dane Dunlop and John McManus who started 3 minutes later.
At the finish of the first lap, the chase group of the Dunlops and Mc Manus had pulled back one minute on main group. The message was passed to the front group which included the reigning champion Raymond Pauley. Pauley was not going to give up his crown that easy so he made his group work harder resulting in the chase group not reducing time on lap two.
The message then was passed back to the chase group who upped their speed to pull back to 40 seconds at the finish of lap three.
On lap four, disaster struck for Dane when he punctured, a quick wheel change by neutral service William Lyons and the craft of riding on a bumper of a van Dane was able to make his way back to the chase group. The chase group caught the main group half way around the final lap and now the tactics would start.
First off the front was Keith Johnston but the defending champion Raymond Pauley was having none of it and quickly pulled him back to the peleton. Then off went Raymond Dunlop who was well marked by cousin Dane and again the attack was unsuccessful. John McManus then attacked on the hills at Florencecourt but again the attack was covered by the Dunlops. Then, Pauley thinking of his second championship in a row attacked but was quickly marked by Dane. Sean Fee and Alan McGee tried their luck 1km from home but the bunch was having none of it so close to the finish.
It was now all down to a bunch finish. Raymond Dunlop took a long lead out with Dane on his wheel, Dane then jumped but a misjudgement of the distance to the finish line cost him dearly as Raymond out sprinted him to win by half a wheel.
Results
| Pos | Cyclist | Club | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Raymond Dunlop | LCC | |
| 2 | Dane Dunlop | LCC |