Ballinrobe 2 Day Race Report

A good weekend of racing for the Club in the Ballinrobe 2 Day last weekend with James McGreevy, Keith O’Connell, Michael Brady and Noreen O’Toole competing in the A3/2/1/Jr/Ladies main race while Oliver Whyte, Pat Monaghan, Michael Flynn and Richard Meaney contested the A4 race on Sunday.

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Stage 1 on Saturday was over a very testing 80km hilly route with 5 categorized climbs including the hors category Lally’s Mountain. Noreen’s Ladies group got 10mins handicap over the A3/Juniors while they in turn got 3mins over the A2/A1 scratch group. James made the lead group over Lally’s and managed to stay in contention finishing with that lead group, only 2 riders finishing ahead. Keith and Michael finished in the chasing group only 2.5minutes down with riders strewn all over South Mayo after all that climbing. Noreen wasn’t feeling great and pulled out after 15km.

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Stage 2A was a 7km TT into a strong headwind from Kilmaine to Ballinrobe. Both Keith and James had sub 11minutes with James moving upto 15th in GC. Fastest on the day was Ryan Sherlock with 9:25mins.

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Stage 2B was a tough 117km lumpy 15km circuit around Ballinrobe. With the ladies scooping up all the points on Day 1 the handicap was cut back to 3minutes with a further 2 minutes back to the scratch. 6 riders from the scratch group got across to the A3’s when Keith and James got into the main break of the day. James was in contention for the A3 prize and put in a huge effort but his efforts from Day 1 took its toll and he dropped back to the main bunch. Keith took the Sprint Prime on Lap 5 sponsored by Inches Bar and finished 9th on the Stage. James took the Unplaced A3 Prize.

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In the 60km A4 Ballinrobe GP Westport were well represented with 4 riders. 3 riders were in chase of points to reach the season target of upgrading to A3. Michael Flynn was active from the gun driving up the drags with Pat Monaghan getting caught out early on with a dropped chain. It all stayed together as it usually does in A4 races with Ollie taking 2nd in the sprint, Richie finishing 4th and Michael Flynn 5th.

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A great set of results for the club at a very well run race by Western Lakes CC.

Photos below by Pawel Sadowski.

https://www.westportcc.ie/2013-photos/nggallery/2013/ballinrobe-2-day-2013-a4-race/