Klondyke Cup – Robinstown Co Meath

An hour before the race started it began to rain – some rain would be nice, for a change!

The race was 12 laps of a 5 mile circuit with a long drag to the finish the only incline worth reporting. The Swords/McNally riders were out in force and as we rolled away from the start I was determined to get into the winning move, as I seem to be in chasing groups all the time these days, so I decided to go up the road with everything that moved.

After a lap, 15 riders clipped away and I was in the move. We got working well and nobody missed a turn. After a lap we got a gap for 30 seconds and it steadily grew to 1:30 at the half way mark. The break had 2 Usher riders (Baker & Swinard), 2 Naas riders (Looby and Prendergast), Stephen O’Sullivan, Brian Lennon, Conor Murphy and a few others. It was a strong group but I knew that Cycleways would be chasing hard as they had nobody in the move so the hammer stayed down, until a time check came in with the bunch at 3 minutes.

5 laps to go and I felt great but I had to watch some of the big guns. With 3 laps to go the jumping started. I let a few up the road knowing they were no treat until Sully went. I let him get the gap and I put it in the 11 and went after him and got across. The 2 of us put our heads down and got a gap quickly. We heard that Brian Lennon was trying to get across and as there was 15 miles still to go so we waited for him. Over the next 2 laps we built up a gap of a minute and it was obvious that the race was between us 3. Going into the last lap Sully tried a few attacks, they didn’t trouble me, but it signalled his intentions and I decided to ease off on the last lap and let them try and drop me. There was a bit of cat and mouse but I got into the last mile and Brian Lennon attacked hard as Sully and I just looked at each other, Sully closed the gap and I jumped past as hard as I could in the 53*12 to take a very satisfying win for myself and McNally Swords CC.