Write a commentCatherine Sands from Rostrevor made her debut in open racing on Easter Sunday at Ras an Laois. The women’s only event forms part of the National league. Catherine rode strong throughout the race and finished in the bunch. Catherine has been training hard all winter with the wheelers and should have a really good season ahead of her.
Ralph Ginesi rode in the A4 race and in a hectic bunch sprint took a top ten place. Declan Gallogly was racing in A3 but a mechanical dampened his chances.
Next week sees the very popular FPM league start which will be run every Tuesday night throughout the summer. The first round is a 10 mile TT and kicks of at 6.45pm. Peter Mc Conville will once again be amongst the favourites but is likely he will be pushed along the way by young riders like Conor Mc Loughlin, Declan Reid and Conor Curran.
Impressive at Tour of North
Gareth McCullough was the strong man at the recent 3 day Tour of North held over the Easter weekend. McCullough was part of a four man Newry Wheelers Team along with Sean Featherstone, Jude Sands and Des Woods.
Stage 1
The first stage was a 60 mile road stage taking in roads around the north coast and the speed was on from the off. Featherstone was unlucky with a mechanical and lost some time while the rest of the Newry team finished in the bunch only a couple of seconds behind stage winner Gareth McKee from Banbridge.
Stage 2 & 3
Easter Sunday started with time trial in the morning and a 60 mile road stage in the afternoon. The wheelers team was in the action in the early stages but nothing was sticking and a bunch finish was the outcome with McCullough best placed in 13th.
McCullough 3rd Place in Final Stage
The Monday stage the hardest of the weekend was to take in a couple of hills over the 75 mile route. An early break formed but the Newry lads where content to wait to the final of the race where the action would hot up.
McCullough who is adept at reading a race really well saw his opportunity with 15 miles to go and clipped of the front with 5 others including the yellow jersey and eventual winner Dave Watson from the North Down club. Watson drove the group on to the finish which would be contested by the breakway of 6 riders. Watson jumped early and got the gap and held on to take the stage and the Tour of The North with Gareth taking a fine 3rd place in the tough stage. The rest of the team finished up in the bunch and where glad to see the finish after 3 hard days of racing.
