Round up of Weekend's Racing

It was another weekend of big racing for Ireland's cyclists. The premier event of the weekend was the Shay Elliott Memorial, a race that has been running for over 50years held in memory of Ireland's first professional cyclists and former yellow jersey wearer at the Tour de France. Held in Co. Wicklow the race covers 140km and features the dreaded Shay Elliott climb. The day was not made any easier by the constant wind and rain that battered the riders from start to finish. Cuchulainn had 5 men line up in the race and Michael Barry was having a great ride before bad luck intervened and he crashed out of the winning break on a greasy bend, forcing him to abandon. The rest of the riders all came home in the main bunch after a very wet day with Alan Grey moving up in the sprint to take a top 10 position in the A2 Category.

On Sunday the action moved to County Meath's  Bohermeen, were the course was considerably flatter. In the A4 race Alan Bingham continued his recent good form and placed in the top 6, which sees him earn enough points to move up a category to A3. In the main race,. which was 135km long, Gary Shiels and Kenny Sullivan came home in the main bunch, with Gary taking 5th in the A2 category.

The IVCA League, where Cuchulainn riders have been so dominant over the years, continued on Sunday. However such is their reputation that they are heavily marked and despite being active from the drop of the flag any green and red jersey was very heavily marked, not allowing the Dundalk men to feature amongst the results.