Coveys take 1st & 2nd in Mayo League
Keith O Connell staged a magnificent comeback by winning the Mayo Cycling League at the final race in Ballinrobe. Keith was lying in 3rd position overall going into the final round, a solid performance throughout the league and a much improved TT where he bettered his first TT result thus leaped fogged him above Barry Holian of Western Lakes and Ger Corcoran to snatch the Marrey Bikes yellow jersey as overall league winner. Ger was leading the League heading into in the Final stage but with only 25 points separating the top three it was wide open.
The final round was a 15k time trial from Ballinrobe to Kilmaine and back. On the night Padraig Marrey Western Lakes CC proved fastest,20:32 winning by over 30 seconds, Ollie Whyte showed his Time Trialling power by taking 2nd in the stage and setting the 3rd fastest time ever on the course,21:05. Dave Mac Dermott also Western Lakes was the most improved time trialist over the league when he improved his time by 1minute and 14 seconds with Francis Sheridan taking 2nd place in the Most Improved category. Keith managed to improve by 58secs with a time of 22:05 managing to secure vital bonus points.
How it was won
This year’s ‘Mayo League’ format included 8 stages including 2 Hill Climbs, 2 Time Trials and 4 Road Races. In the spirit of good competition 6 stages were handicapped to allow for the different ability of cyclist to compete. In the first two stages however, points were scored based on the fastest times in the 5k Hill Climb on Lally’s Mountain in Tourmakeady and a 15k Individual Time Trial in Ballinrobe.
In the road race stages there were 4 groups with the 1st group getting up to 15mins of a head start on the scratch group over 60km route. Both the final Hill Climb and Time Trial had points for the fastest result on the night and bonus points for most improved in the final two stages.
The leaders yellow jersey changed hands 5 times, making for good competitive racing.
115 cyclists from 7 Mayo clubs took part in the 8 round which were spread around the county.
This year the league introduced the Team Classification, Western Lakes won with a score of 1922pts from Westport Covey Wheelers 2nd 1725pts and Castlebar 3rd 909pts. Heading into the last two stages Westport were 114 pts adrift of the lead and whilst Con Doherty had a blistering time on Lallys mountain of 11.42 taking maximum points on the night there were insufficient Covey finishers in the top ten. Westport Covey Wheelers managed to reduce the 280pts gap down to under 200pts by having 6 finishers in the top ten in the final stage. More hill climbing lads!
Photos from the TT can be seen on Conor McKeowns page. LINK.
15k Time Trial results
1st Padraig Marrey Western Lakes 20.32
2nd Oliver Whyte Westport Covey Wheelers 21.05
3rd Ger Corcoran Westport Covey Wheelers 21.19
4th Barry Holian Westport Covey Wheelers 21.26
5th Con Doherty Westport Covey Wheelers 21.40
6th Michael Gilvarry Western Lakes 21.53
7th Keith O’Connell Westport Covey Wheelers 22.05
8th Sean O’Malley Western Lakes 22.18
9th Kevin Roache Unattached 22.19
10th Noel Mulroy Westport Covey Wheelers 22.26
Most Improved in TT
1ST David Mac Dermott Western Lakes 1.114
2nd Francis Sheridan Westport Covey Wheelers 1.11
3rd Sean O Malley Western Lakes 1.07
4th Robert Manion Castlebar 1.04
5th Keith O’Connell Westport Covey Wheelers .58
6th John Walsh Castlebar .52
7th Michael Gilvarry Western Lakes .43
8th Padraig Marrey Western Lakes .42
9th Damien Gannon Westport Covey Wheelers .42
10th Padraic Frain Swinford .34
Mayo League Overall after 8 rounds
Yellow jersey sponsored By Marrey Bikes Ballinrobe
1st Keith O Connell Westport Covey Wheelers 542pts
2nd Ger Corcoran Westport Covey Wheelers 530pts
3rd Barry Holian Western Lakes 518pts
4th Padraig Marrey Western Lakes 475pts
5th Sean O Malley Western Lakes 469pts
6th Colin Browne Westport Covey Wheelers 410pts
7th Kevin Roache Unattached 406 pts
8th Padraig Fraine Swinford 388 pts
9th Robert Manion Castlebar 379 pts
10th Damien Gannon Westport Covey Wheelers 348pts
Mayo League Team Classifiaction after 8 rounds
1st Western Lakes 1922pts
2nd Westport Covey Wheelers 1725pts
3rd Castlebar 909pts
4th Cunga 259pts
5th Swinford 117pts
6th Annagh Wheelers 38pts
There will now be a Team Time Trial competition on Friday 6th July over 50k. The club can enter its best 10 riders as a Team. We will probably have two teams so anyone interested should contact Noel Brady by text on 087-9546991.