Tour of the North Cuchulainn 7th Team Overall

The final stage of the 2011 Tour of the North set off in glourious sunshine, for the 120km from Ballymena to Carrickfergus. Unfortunately Peter Tomany did not start as his injuries from the previous day's crash were more severe than originally thought.

The bunch left Ballymena at a serious pace and the first 40km to the top of the day's category 2 climb at Shane's Hill was covered in less than 60minutes. The descent off the hil saw the rider's max out at over 70km per hour as the pace was on to pull back a dangerous brick. At the 60km stage the race entered the hilly finishing circuit where disaster struck for Liam Dolan when he broke a spoke in his rear wheel. Dolan chased in vain for the rest of the day but never regained contact with the main bunch and lost some 25minutes on the winner. The rest of the Cuchulainn riders again continued with their impressive form and stayed in contact with the main bunch despite the high pace all day.

The stage was won by Carrickmacross cyclist Dermot Finnegan. Dermot was a former Cuchulainn rider before moving to Liverpool some 10years ago. When all the times had been added up the Dundalk club was a very credible 7th team overall, finishing ahead of some much more illustrious teams.[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"133","attributes":{"class":"media-image aligncenter size-medium wp-image-221","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","width":"300","height":"199","alt":""}}]]