Race Report From The Connacht League on Sunday 25th of March

Well done to Paul Byrne who represented the Curlieu Wheelers  on Sunday 25th of March in the Connacht League and thanks for the following race report:

On Sunday Morning I travelled to Tuam to participate in my first race of the season in the Connacht league. Hopefully this will be my only race without some fellow Curlieu Wheelers to fly the flag for the club. The weather forecast was set to be fine and it definitively was as the riders set off from the start line in fantastic Sunshine. The course was a 74km loop and it was over a mixed course with some climbs that would test the legs for the first race of the season.

There was a field of about 70 riders which was made up of A4, A3's and a one A2 and which went off together. The race was handicapped and the under 16's and ladies had a 10 minute start on the seniors. I decided to stay in the bunch for the first 20k to see how I would feel. But after the first 20km I was feeling reasonable for my first race and the winter miles over the Curlews seem to have paid off.

A group of 3riders made a break around the 30k mark all from the 3 big clubs in the race. The only A2 in the race tried to get across to break a few times but was heavily marked by the others.

At the 40k mark I decided to do a bit of chasing to try to bring back the break. The A2 rider started to ride at the front of the race and I helped as much as I could as he was very strong and the under 16’s still had about 3 or 4 mins with about 15 k to go. We brought back in the break of the 3 senior riders but never caught the under 16’s who finished about a minute ahead of us and mopped up the points. But on the overall I was happy with the pace of the race (avr 38/39km) and my form for the first of the season. Looking forward to next week’s end Markievicz Cup where I hope to have fellow Curlieu Wheeler Aaron O Conor joining me.