Cycling: Another tough race for Wheelers

Last Tuesday night West Down Wheelers held another round of their Road Race series, when it was back again to the very tough Quarry circuit.
By The Newsroom
Published 11th Aug 2014, 21:01 BST
Paul Wilkinson who finished a brilliant 4th in the Newry 3 day cycle race at the weekend with Darren Lynas who also finished the top class race.Paul Wilkinson who finished a brilliant 4th in the Newry 3 day cycle race at the weekend with Darren Lynas who also finished the top class race.
Paul Wilkinson who finished a brilliant 4th in the Newry 3 day cycle race at the weekend with Darren Lynas who also finished the top class race.

What makes this one tough is the fact there are alot of attacking out of corners, and a very tough hill to conquer eight times.

For the past few years there haven’t had big turnouts but with over 20 on Tuesday it had the makings of a very good race.

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It was set for a tight battle with three of the Wheelers’ best riders having a chance of winning it outright, P.Wilkinson, D.Lynas, and J.Kernaghan. But what a turnup on the night as the three main contenders were not available, so watch this space.

But what a good race it was, with the 22 riders split into two groups, separated by three and a half minutes.

For the first six laps nothing really changed other than the first group lost a few riders, as did the second, but halfway around the 6th lap the scratch group caught the leaders who still had the Wheelers’ Mark Alexander, Clive Adamson, and Andy Hodgen. Matt had just pulled a wheel and he was out, halfway around lap 7 Mark punctured so he was out. Then DCC’s Gavin Magowan shot out of the group to open up a gap with D.Montgomery.

D.McKnight was the only rider to get over to the leaders, and that’s how it finished. Davy led out for the finish with DCC’s Gavin Magowan taking another very good win, with Andy and Clive the 1st and 2nd Wheelers’ home.

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This was another very well run race with plenty of marshalls and plenty to talk about afterwards.

Big thanks again to Billy, Derek, Vincent, John Clyde, Berty and Barbara.

Next week’s race is a 25 mile TT on the Castlewellan Road for the Steven Savage Memorial. Then on Friday night it’s the start of the McKinley three day stage race there is a three man team entered P.Wilkinson, D.Lynas, and DCC Guest rider R.Smyth, here’s wishing the guys good luck.