Carn Wheelers at Tour of Omagh 2014

Carn Wheelers Scoop Big at the Tour of Omagh!

This weekend saw the 4th Omagh 3 day stage race take place.  The event open to A4s was vastly over subscribed so getting to the start list was an honour even before getting on the bike.

Aidan Higgins, Carl McWilliams, Diarmuid Logan, Dean Lockhart and Rodney Young signed on for the men's race while Mairead McGurk took to the start for the ladies race.

Friday night was a 44 mile loop with 3 categorised climbs and 2 intermediate sprints.  It's was a fast start with the average for the first hour almost 26mph, whilst some of the peloton lost contact on the Cat 2 climb, there was a long battle to get back into the group and with 10 miles to go the stage was set for a 100 plus group sprint finish into Omagh in excess of 40mph.

In the closing miles it was Carn man Higgins who pressed hard for the sprint taking home 3rd behind Stephen McCann (Emyvale CC) and Paul Hunter (Swords CC)  with a critical 4 bonus seconds on the results sheet and the rest of the team making it home on the winners time.

Saturday morning started with a short out and back time trial on a closed road, it was always going to suit strong man Logan - known for his good TT results. Diarmaid kept the hammer down and walked into the lead yellow jersey with an 8 second advantage. 

Stage 3 rolled out on Saturday afternoon with Logan in yellow it was up to the team to protect him through the 42 miles with another 3 categorised climbs including the Cat 1 ascent at Sion Finn mountain.  Carn controlled the stage for the early part to the first sprint where it livened up and attacks started to go but everything was brought back and Logan was never under any threat.

All was going to plan until the second climb of the day when the man in yellow had a mechanical, after a quick bike change from the support crew he was back on and battling his way back to the peloton.

All the rest of the team made it home before the time cut off and with tired legs it was off to the team physio and spa for recovery.

With bonus seconds collected by challengers at the intermediate sprints on stage 3, Logan's advantage was whittled down to just 3 seconds as we began stage 4, the instructions from the 'Directeur Sportif' was to mark any of the top contenders and neutralise any potential threat to the jersey.  

In the neutralised section a bike change was required for Logan before the stage began, switching for Raphael Scullion's machine with electric gears.

Rodney, Carl, Aidan and Dean all worked well to combat any moves and kept a tight an eye on things from the front of the race and dropping back to the commissaire to get results from the intermediate sprints to keep the man in yellow informed.

At 15 or so miles in, the jersey man had another mechanical with the electric gears packing in and with the hardest climbs of the race still to come every gear on the bike would be needed. With another quick bike swap on the road from Higgins he was back on the bike again - battling hard to get back on before the climbs at Gortin.

With the top end of the GC so tight there were some big names trying to break off the front of the peloton going over the Gortin Glens ascent, a group finally went clear but any threat to the yellow jersey was neutralised by the man himself and he was too strong to be shook off.

Coming to the line it was Adam Greally (St. Tiernan's CC) who took the stage 4 win and 10 second bonus but after some calculations and a hand shake from race director Stevie McKenna it was confirmed that Carn Wheelers would take home the race victory ahead of North Down man Keith Phillips by a slender 1 second margin.

Well done to all who took part and thanks to the support team of Dessie, Johnny, Daryl, Joe & Paddy who were busy throughout the weekend keeping the team right. With 3rd on a stage, 1st on a stage and 3 yellow jerseys it was a great weekends work.

Thanks to local Bann Valley men Adrian McPeake for the running repairs and Paul McQuillan for donating his bike which ended up being rode by the race winner!

Omagh Wheelers put on a great show all weekend, providing a professional and safe race for riders, team selections for 2015 Tour of Omagh are underway already, apply to Directeur Sportif Taylor should you want an entry.