Marc Heaneys strong performance at Sainsbury Youth Games
A purple patch is a phrase used in the english language to describe a period of excellent performance, where everything goes right, works flawlessly and all the pieces of the puzzle fall into place. To date 2014 could be described as a purple year for Carn Wheelers young protégé Marc Heaney as a plethora of podium places and trophies saw him selected for the Cycling Ulster team who would complete at the Sainsburys School Games at the Manchester Velodrome. Marc was selected to compete in 5 different events, the 3.5lap sprint, the 2km pursuit, the 20km Madison, 3lap the team sprint and the 3lap team pursuit.
Team Ulster went into the games being one of two teams in a competition of 14 who had no previous experience of cycling in and indoor velodome. The absence of an indoor velodrome in Ireland meant the teams only experience of track cycle came at the outdoor facilities at Orangefield and Sundrive. Marc and his team mates were not going to the games with excuses, instead with a desire to prove themselves on the national stage.
After the fun of the opening ceremony on thursday night Marc took to the boards for his first event on friday morning, the boys sprint. Marc was in heat 2 where the top spot earned the victor a place in the I/J (9th/10th) semi-final along with his Ulster team mate Harvey Barnes and Tom Pidcock from Yorkshire. Marc used this years racing experience to great effect controlling much of the race, on the final lap coming out of turn two the young english rider cut across Marc's wheel forcing him to bail out of the race line up the banked track and costing him higher ranked semi-final place. In the M/N semi-final Marc was up against another English rider Benjamin Moody from the North-East team, he secured victory and a place in the M final where he finished a very close runner up.
The two riders completed the final in a time of 13seconds only 1.2seconds down on the A final, these results demonstrate the micro differences between riders in track cycling. The differences were highlighted to our young star by the team's coach for the weekend Gary McKeegan. Gary is a Physiologist and Lecturer in Sports Science and coach with Forme Coaching, he explained that in track cycling the better funded teams with disc wheels are tri bars have a 1second/lap advantage. This considered, Marc and the Ulster boys acquitted themselves very well.
On Saturday the next event was the 2km pursuit, again Marc acquitted himself admirably in an aggressive field of 26 riders that was only separated top to bottom by a margin of 20seconds. Next up was the 20km Madison, this is a unique discipline in the cycling fraternity, named after the famous Madison Square Garden in NYC where team mates grab hands during the race in order to preform a sling shot manoeuvre. Previously team Ulster had no experience of this type of cycling but cometh the hour cometh the men, Marc and his team mate Harvey Barnes stepped up to the plate and in their first ever madison race finished well in the field.
Sunday brought the final day of competition, the team events of the sprint and pursuit. In the 3lap team sprint team Ulster were drawn in heat 1 along with Brazil. Team Ulster consisted of Harvey Barnes, Xeno Toung and Marc, the boys entered the race full of confidence ready to give their South American opponents a real contest until disaster struck. An unsecured rear wheel on Marc's bike meant that just as he was about to put the hammer down his wheel jumped and threw the chain. As the rules state only a mechanical allows for a restart team Ulster had to forfeit the heat. The boys returned to the track for the final event determined to finish the event on a high note. The 3km team pursuit saw the boys finish with a final time of 3:48.461 with an average speed of almost 30mph. As with the individual event the team pursuit was only separated by a 20second margin, Marc and his comrades had done themselves, their families, team Ulster and their clubs back home extremely proud.
The entire Carn Wheelers club would like to commend Marc on how he acquitted himself at the games and how proud we are of his results. We are honoured to have this young man in our club and are looking forward to seeing him return to competition in the green and black! Well done Marc!
