Newry 3 Day Event
Newry 3 Day
The weekend saw Newry Wheelers promote their annual 3 day tour. Carn Wheelers was represented in this A2-A3 race this year by Ali Gribbon and Joe McCrory along with Spires CC rider Mark Glendinning and Bann Valley CC star Gerard McNally.
Team Carn Wheelers made their way to the south east just as tropical storm Bertha was preparing herself to make weather conditions horrendous for the 80 competing racers. The tour comprised three road race stages and a individual TT event.
Day one saw the first stage a 35mile race on the Newry to Warrenpoint circuit, this flat fast race saw no breakaways with almost everyone coming home in a time of 1Hour 18minutes. With no clear leader following stage one day two was sure to be full of action and attacks.
Stage 2 was a 53mile race with two sprints and two KOH to ensure competitive racing would be served up. The poor weather had resulted in difficult conditions, a greasy road surface was slowing the race down but this didn't seem to distract Joe McCrory from the job at hand and again Carn Wheelers had a man finishing in the main field after just over 2hours of racing. Ali, Marc and Gerard continued to keep themselves in the mix losing only a couple of minutes on the main field.
With little or no time separating most of the top 40 the TT was an opportunity for many riders to secure a top 10 place in the GC. The 3.7 mile drag may not seem like much but after two hours of intense racing this would be the most important stage of the tour. Ali Gribbon was unto task here and finished 3rd with an amazing time of 8minutes 9seconds firing him up the GC into an amazing 17th place, next was Mark Glendinning who took 6th just 5seconds down on Ali. Gerard McNally and familiar face at local TT events began to fine some form finishing with a great time of 8minutes 46seconds ahead of Joe McCrory who was keeping his race alive and well with an impressive 8minutes 51seconds.
A wet an dull Sunday morning greeted the team as the final challenge was ahead, a gruelling 73mile stage with plenty of feet to climb including 4 cat 2 KOH stages and three sprint stages. Again the main factor of the day was Bertha who had spent all night soaking the course leaving a lot of standing water on an already tricky course. Grit and determination were needed in large quantities today as tired legs pushed hard through the orchard county in pursuit of glory, again the Carn men stood tall as again Joe finished in the main field joined by Mark and Gerard.
Unfortunately mechanical problems saw Ali finish just behind the main field, speaking after stage 4 he said "every body got round and finished safe and well in horrendous weather conditions, unfortunately two wheel repairs today wiped out any time i gained yesterday in the TT and any chance of a top 10 finish, although 3rd in the tt was a great result for me for my second time on a tt bike".
Gerard McNally was philosophical on his own performance over the weekend, "Stage 1,2&3 were a complete disaster for me,had absolutely no form at all and had lost over 4 min at the end of stage 3. I could have packed the 4th stage in before it started with the poor weather and position/form i was in but decided to see it out. Stage 4 went much better even with the monsoon for over 70m of racing and finished the 'Queen' stage in 23rd pos and a wee bit of form had returned to my relief or the bike could have been left in Newry Canal very handy!", the rest of team Carn Wheelers were glad he didn't as the huge effort on stage four saw the team finish in 3rd in the overall GC, well done men!
The team wishes to thank all who helped out at the tour in any way especially to Spires Cycling Club, Raphael Scullion, Diarmuid Logan,Seamus Donnelly and Bann Valley Road Club - Noel Bradley for covering the back up support and permitting their riders to join us on this race, Mairead McGurk for all her help, Nicky Gormley, Eunan McAleese and Kieran Doherty for making the long journey to support their club. We would also like to commend Newry Wheelers CC on a very enjoyable and well run event.
