Cycling: Joe holds on to claim victory in the Maxwell Cup

Brian Curran grabbed victory in race two last Wednesday but even that victory couldn’t haul in Joe, whose sixth place sealed a one point advantage over Brian and Nathan Sturrock, who tied for the runner-up spot.

Last Wednesday, 18 riders signed on for the second road race in the two event Maxwell Cup series held over six laps (25miles) of the testing Drumneath Road circuit.

Once again, three groups set off in perfect conditions with time gaps of six minutes and ten minutes.

After a strong opening lap, Group One, including Shenna McKiverigan, Paul Anderson, Leslie Creighton, James Gillespie and Gerard Byrne, started to lose time and were barely in front of Group Two with one to go.

The second group was made up of strong riders such as Chris Burns,Freida Brown, Brian Curran, Ewan Anderson and Martin Fitzpatrick and they were forcing the pace.

Group two were holding the Scratch group at bay but with only 30 seconds to spare as they entered the final lap.

On the final hill with a mile to go, Chris Burns, Brian Curran and Freida Brown opened up a 10 second gap on their group colleagues as they struck for the finish.

On the line, Brian just managed to hold off a determined effort from Chris to take the victory by less than a bike length.

Freida held her slight advantage over Martin Fitzpatrick to finish in third place.

A few seconds later, the hard charging scratch group led by Nathan Sturrock and Joe Penny with Shenna McKiverigan gamely hanging in, rolled across the line.

Once again, thanks is due to the marshalls, timekeepers and handicapper Stevie Curran, whose timings produced an exciting race on the evening.