Ulster Cycling News
31Aug/030

Full Report from Sperrins by Thornlea2

On Wednesday night 20th August the first ever running of the Sperrin
Festival race was held on a very fast safe circuit Maghera. Main Sponsor
Walsh's Hotel played host to 26 of Northern Irelands top cyclist with the
red carpet being laid out for both competitors and friends. The race
itself consisted of 15 laps of a new and what riders described as a nice
circuit with 5 primes on laps 4,6,8,10 and 12 ,it wasn't long before the
pattern of the race unfolded with Willie Hamilton and Paul Slane breaking
on the second lap to gain a lead of 10 seconds. On the first of the prime
laps Willie rode through the line to win the prime which was not
contested by Paul ,this showed that the two riders were intent to stay
out for as long as they could and were prepared to work together to win
the primes, at lap 8 both these riders had taken turns to collect the
primes and had also increased their lead 30 seconds with a few short
lived solo breaks coming from the main bunch by Conor Murphy, Tommy Evans
and Myles McCorry and Andy Layhe of the promoting Apollo Team. With the
main prime of the night a nights B & B for 2 in Walsh's Hotel up for
grabs on lap 10 the bunch started to spead up and split into 2 distinct
groups with all the pre race favourites in the front group, with the
efforts of Conor Murphy ,Matthew Ward and Denis Easton they were able to
bring the gap back to 10 seconds but were unable to close it.The two lads
continued to ride steady and collected the remainder of the primes and
then went on to contest the Sprint at the end with Willie taking it by a
tyre with from the rejuvenated Paul Slane who has just returned this year
to competitive cycling after a fews years away. Matthew Ward head the
sprint for 3rd place followed by Denis Easton and Conor Murphy completing
the course in 58 minutes and 15 seconds,17 seconds down on race winner
Willie.
Presentation of the prizes were made in Walsh's Hotel afterwards by Kate
Lagan Lady Chair of the local Council, all guest were treated to a nice
reception in beautiful surroundings of the Hotel who were delighted to be
sponsoring the Race for the first time. Although disappointed about the
number of riders who turned up they were not about the quality of racing
and promised that it would be bigger and better next year.All riders who
took part were certainly impressed with the hotels commitment especially
for running a cycle event for the first time and promised to be back next
year. Race Organiser would like to thank Walsh's for the Sponsorship, the
riders who competed and the PSNI who did a great job on the night.

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