St Patrick’s Weekend Racing
Leinster League: Race 3 Saturday March 16th 2002
Plenty of racing to be had over the weekend and Swords riders in all of them. Racing started on Saturday with the third round of the Leinster League. Mick Rock was prominent in the early break from the Vets/Cat3 group and this move was clear for some time. A’s & B’s started together and Pepe was in the first break which was attempting to bridge to the Vets/C’s.Shortly afterwards John Lally also escaped with 3 others, picked up Pepe and all worked to get across, but the gap wasn’t coming down enough to warrant a continued effort esp. with a race to come on Sunday. New signing, Keith Daly, placed first Junior to maintain some pride for the Swords lads.
Carrick Challenge Cup Sunday March 17th 2002
Two races on Sunday. Sean, John and Garoid went to Carrick on Suir to a race run on the Championship course. A field of heavy hitters incl.Cassidy and the Carrick lads. Strong winds and rain saw the race shortened from it’s planned 6 laps to 5. John got into some early moves but no group got more than 40 sec. Unfortunately Garoid suffered mechanical difficulties and had to pull out. Plenty of speedwork done with speeds of 70k (43.5mph) on the long five mile straight. It was left to Sean to put us on the scoreboard, placing 8th in the combined Vets/Jun/C’s race.
Dublin Drogheda Sunday March 17th 2002
Meanwhile on another windswept and rainy course the rest of the Swords clan were doing battle in the traditional Dublin Drogheda H/cap.Early moves from the Vets group that involved Mick Rock were countered until on the return leg Anto launched what would be the major move of the day. He was quickly joined by one other rider and soon this group swelled to 12 riders incl. first year Junior Keith Daly. Keith came through a few times but perhaps his efforts on Saturday began to tell as he and a few others lost contact with the leading group. The group was down to seven and split further on the run in with three riders escaping. Despite continued efforts from Anto he failed to bridge to these three, but still managed a creditable 6th.
Other riders competing this weekend (that I know about) were Sean Tierney, Alan Duffy, Jason Kelly, Simon Whelan, Pat Halpin, a debut from O’Malley, Joe and an ever improving John Shortt on his welcome return to racing. By the way lads, what’s the story, have ye slipped Peter Puirfield a few bob, yez are in nearly every bleedin’ picture!! (Or maybe it’s because ye are in all the moves!)
