Brendan Campbell Memorial, Donore

During my warm-up lap Tony O’Malley commented to me that this circuit was ”not so hard”. An hour later I had to laugh to myself because I was taking a terrible hiding !! 13 laps of a 4 mile hilly circuit was the menu of the day. On the second lap the Vets, Juniors and Ladies were caught by a break away group from the main bunch of As and Bs. When the main bunch made contact with the limit riders about 10 riders were clear and this group looked dangerous as it contained some good As, I thought to myself … I had better get up there ! The gap was about 20 seconds but I managed to get across in one piece when I got there I was relieved to see that I had a team mate in Anto McMahon, who was looking very strong ! The break never got more than 50 seconds and with 6 laps to go we were reeled in by a group of about 15 riders. With 25 in the lead group the jumping started … Anto and I missed the boat as 8 guys slipped away. We both tried in vain to get across, and with two laps to go myself and Aidan Crowley with Mark Kiernan for company tried to bridge the gap. (Mark didn’t assist as he had two team mates up the road) But we just ended up sprinting for 8th place … a sprint I didn’t contest because of a lack of energy ! Sean Lally was pipped on the line by Seamus Kennedy for second Vet and Tony O’Malley had a good ride to finish his third open race in the bunch. Mick Rock also finished in the main bunch, Geroid Loughnan punctured with 2 to go and John Peppard was also in the main bunch punctured with one lap to go !! In the underage races Niall and Sean Rock were at the head of affairs (as usual) finishing second and fourth. All in all another good showing for the Club !