Racing - Lakeland 2 Day
Report from weekends racing.
The sun was shining on Fermanagh on Saturday morning when the Carn machine of Nicky Gormley, Eunan McAleese, Michael Scullion, Marc Heaney, Johnny McComney and Brothers Paddy & Michael Kelly rolled into town for the first stage of the 2015 Lakeland 2 Day road race hosted by Lakeland CC.
The stage was neutralised for the first 5miles then the flag dropped to start
what proved to be a fast exciting stage of racing with Nicky and two others
riders making a break from the bunch from the off. With the race moving out to
a circuit section of the course the three man break hung off the front of the
bunch for a few miles, once the race was contained within the circuit of which
three laps were to be done before the run back to Derrylin the bunch swallowed
up the breakaway riders , however not content with this Nicky again burst off
the front steadily opening up a 1min 20sec gap to the main bunch, he held this
lead and rode for 2.5 of the three laps on his on only to be swallowed up by
the pack just before the last climb. On the run into Derrylin towards the
finish the bunch was altogether and jostling for position for the inevitable
sprint finish. However at 3k to go there was a major high speed crash in the
peloton, six of the seven Carn riders escaped the ensuing carnage to make it to
the finish and sit on equal time to the stage leader, Marc wasn't so lucky
falling heavily sustaining plenty of road rash, cuts and bruises, after a quick
check by medics and a wheel change he was able to continue to the finish albeit
some 6 mins down on the GC. Nicky's efforts during the stage were well rewarded
as he pulled on the Red jersey for being the most combative rider of the day.
Today the lads had two stages to complete, the TT was a relatively short 2.4 miles over a bumpy course with a slight headwind. An early start was the order of the day as the first of them was off at 9.27am, all posted good times with Marc 13th,Nicky 22nd, Eunan 26th, Michael Scullion 27th, Paddy 45, Johnny 65 and Michael Kelly 78th. Vans and cars were then packed up and everyone went off for a well earned bite to eat.
2.30pm and the third stage rolled out towards Derrylin, the riders facing a fast 20 ish miles on fairly flat roads. As the flag dropped that familiar number 27 of Nicky blasted of the front trying to establish a gap and hold on to the red jersey but the bunch were having none of it and were content to reel him in and then sit in behind him until the bottom of the first climb Bellavalley an hour later, at this point Nicky paid the price for his early effort and had to join the bunch. Eunan then made his break and opened up a gap of 40sec + which he maintained for most of the 10-15k it took to ascend the climb only to be caught just before the KOM. On the fast decent there were a few crashes with some broken bikes, thankfully all Carns teams got down to the main road safely. The last climb was an aggressive 3k up Doon. The bunch fragmented as soon as it turned off the main road with riders going backwards rapidly, all the Carn men were climbing strongly towards the finish. With Cameron McIntyre of Banbridge CC having jumped early, Marc decided it was time to go as well, he couldn't manage to bridge the gap but finished an excellent 2nd on the stage and 3rd overall in the KOM classification which helped make up for the disappointment of Saturdays crash. To add to what was a very successful weekend, the performance of all the riders enabled Carn Wheelers to win the overall team classicification.
Congratulations to all the riders, it was a fantastic weekend and it was my
pleasure to be involved and help out.
Tommy Heaney.
