Leagues & Open Racing Round Up

Aaron Trainer with his second place trophy in Bohermeen
While the changeable weather may not suggest that summer has arrived, Thursday last day see the start of The Bike Station Summer Cycling League.. The event commenced under glorious sunshine and saw the race head out to Dunleer and back, a relatively short starter. As per the new format introduced in 2014 there were 2 separate event and in the first race it came down to the wire with the final group only being caught with 1km to go. Cuchulainn's Val Gargan produced an impressive kick to take the win from the large group. Close behing Val in the fast sprint was Eve McCrystal showing all the men a clean pair of heels to take the runner up spot, with Ray O`Shuaghnessey in 3rd.
 
In the second race again the three groups came together to contest the sprint and it was Benny Smith of Killeavy Cycling Club who took the win ahead of Ardee's Alex McDonnell, with another Killeavy man Damien Philips in third. This week the league continues on the Carlingford road, for the deceptively difficult Greenore and back route.
 
The mountain bike league moved into the second round with the first open mountain event, which saw a record entry of 42 riders. The riders tackled a 6.5km lap and after lap 1 Ray O`Shaughnessey led from last week's victor Aiden McDonald and Brendan Callaghan in third. This positions remained until the finish with Ray taken the win. Round 3 sees the league return to Bellurgan Park.
 
Open race was held in the County Meath Village of Bohermeen on Sunday. The main event was an 80mile affair with Dundalk's Bryan McCrystal in 3rd position and Cuchulainn's Liam Dolan also in the winning break coming home in 7th. In the support race Alan Bingham was 4th. Eve McCrystal continued her great run of form by taking her second win in as many weeks in the women's race. In the under 12s event Cuchulainn's Aaron Trainer was an impressive second place, having come agonisingly close to his first win.
 
The IVCA racing season also got underway in Newbridge, Co. Kildare and Cuchulainn as always had a large contingent taking part. Best placed was Enda McKeown who took 3rd place in race 2, with team mate Aidan Delaney right behind in the main bunch.