Dundalk cyclists had a successful weekend at the national champions held in Mullingar, picking up two gold medals. First up in the men's tandem time trial Bryan McCrystal and James Brown went quickest to claim the gold, while in the women's tandem time trial Eve McCrystal and Katie George Dunleavy claimed the gold. Both of the McCrystal siblings have been involved in the Paralympic programme for some months now and are building towards the Olympics in Rio 2016.
Unfortunately a tragic road accident on Saturday morning saw the cancelation of the Vets and Women's Road Race Championships on the Saturday. Here Eve would have been amongst the favourites to podium. While in the vets race, Cuchulainn had sent a strong team, spearheaded by the inform Alan Bingham and would have hopefully been in the hunt for the team prize.
The men's road race did go ahead on the Sunday and the field tackled a 171km race, where Ireland's top professionals. including Tour de France stage winner Dan Martin and former world track champion Martyn Irvine, lined up with the best domestic based riders. Early in the race Bryan McCrystal got himself into a break of 8 riders that stayed away to the end. With 30km to go 19 year old Ryan Mullen rode away to a solo victory and claim the national champions jersey. In the sprint for the remaining medals, McCrystal came agonisingly close to claiming a medal, but just missed out finishing in 4th place.
The latest round of the FPM Accountants Summer cycling league saw the 6 groups race out to Greenore & back. A fast night of racing saw a small group of scratch riders catch all in front of them, with Alan Bingham taking the win ahead of Naill Clarke in second and Liam Dolan in 3rd.