Colm Quinn wins FPM Accountants Summer Cycling League

The FPM Accountants Summer Cycling League has come to an end for 2011, after it wound up with the Hill Climb Championships on Thursday night (September 1st). The Hill Climb also doubled as the Louth Hill Climb Championship & in the ladies event the gold medal went to Breda Dawe. Breda beat defending champion Celine McPhilips by over 30seconds, with Celine taking the bronze medal. The silver medal went to Suzy Mackin.
 
In the mens race all eyes were on Colm Quinn & Gerry McCabe as these 2 were in contention to win both the hill climb & the league title outright. Going into this round McCabe had a  slight lead at the top of the table. However the winner on the night was Ray O`Shuaghnessey, who has been in fine form this season, especially on the mountain bike & can now add a county title to his trophy collection for the 2011 season. However the real action was behind Ray, where Quinn posted the second fastest time of the night, while McCabe was the 4th. Joint 3rd went to Alan Bingham & Michael Barry.
 
These placings were enough to see Quinn jump to the top of the leader board & win the league with 2 points to spare over McCabe. Barry Douglas was 3rd, Declan Gray 4th & Alan Bingham 5th. The visitors prize went to Bohermeen's Chris Reilly for the second year running, ahead of Newry's Kevin Lynch. Despite losing her Hill Climb title, Celine can take comfort in being the first woman overall in the league, ahead of Suzy Mackin. With his overall win Quinn also toke the price for winning the scratch group.
 
On the national road racing scene Colm Quinn continued his good run of results in Mullingar over the weekend August 27/28th. On Friday night he was second to Newry Wheelers rider Mark McKinley in the town center criterium race. The two riders broke away from the main bunch & McKinley narrowly beat Quinn for the win. On Saturday the action resumed with a 74mile road race & again Quinn was in the thick of the action. The race was a handicapped affair & when Quinn's A group had caught all those riders whom had set off earlier the winning break formed, of which he was a part. First to attack was Dublin's Ryan Sherlock whom went on to win the race. Quinn in the remaining 10 miles attacked from the break as well & set off in pursuit of Sherlock. However he ran out of road & had to be satisfied with another fine 2nd place.
 
The next event on the Cuchulainn Cycling Club calendar will be the annual overnight trip on Saturday October 15th. Cyclists will make their way to the City North Hotel leaving Dundalk one either a 45, 70 or 100km route & returning home the next day. Always a great night out details can be found on www.dundalkcycling.com