Marc Heaney at UK Inter-Regional road Championships
The event kicked off on Friday with the criterium eliminator that would determine the grid positions for Saturdays street sprint. The crit comprised 30 laps of a short 0.8km course led to fast and furious racing, on the final corner before the long sprint to the finish Marc was in the top 15 going round the final bend where the current British champion, Matias Barnett, missed a gear triggering Marc to grab a handful of brake to avoid a collision which could have took both riders out. Marc quickly recovered from this near miss securing a mid bunch finish.
Saturday saw the street sprint competition, 250m from a standing start with two 180degree corners to negotiate before the finish. The boys had an individual timed run to seed them into the ride offs. Marc had the 10th quickest qualifying sprint at 22secs dead, the quickest rider on the day was only 0.64secs quicker. Then the heats started, 4 riders in each over this short technical course. In his first heat Marc had a great start and took 1st place maneuvering him closer to a podium ride. His second heat was a sterner charge, Marc entered the first turn in 4th position however through the last turn he deployed his superior bike handling skills to dive up the inside of two of his rivals taking the 2nd place finish he needed to progress.
The young Carn man was now riding in the A/B semi-final, a measured start saw Marc in third through turn 1, a tight formation meant he was unable to move up the inside on the last turn resulting in a 3rd place finish with a place in the B final. In the final race Marc had a swift start cruising past the first turn in 3rd, by turn two Marc was readying himself to launch his attack up in the inside. The young star succeeded in getting his wheel in front up the inside only to have the door shut, finishing in third in the B final he secured 7th from 56 riders for the sprint competition.
Saturday afternoon saw the Team Time Trial, team Cycling Ulster finished in 10th position after 2 laps of a 1.5km circuit that incorporated two sharp climbs. This year the top 10 finishing teams in the TTT all posted times faster than the 2013 winning team, such was the improvement of the teams involved.
After a refuel and rest Sunday morning dawned with the substantial challenge of a 65km road race. From the flag drop the pace was bullet like for the first few laps after which it settled down to a more civilized pace. A breakaway of four riders moved off the front after 5 laps, Marc and his team Ulster comrades remained in the main bunch. Racing continued unabated as the peloton continued to chase the breakaway group but despite their energies the gap to the leaders was just too great. In the final climb of the race the peloton remained together, on the drop down into the alpine section, where the street sprint started on the previous day, Marc was well positioned in the bunch, he advanced six positions on the approach to the final 180degree hairpin turn before the short sprint to the finish line, which he crossed in 22nd place.
For Marc this competition marked the end of an era. The weekends racing was his last competitive outing as a schoolboy and what a way to complete it, at this magnificent event with the elite of British youth cycling. We are in no doubt that as Marc moves forward in his cycling career he will continue to enjoy great success, the entire Carn Wheeler family would like to congratulate Marc on an amazing performance not just this weekend but in all of 2014!
