McKenna Shines in the Sun.
Last weekend whilst most of the racing men from NDCC took part in the local Ards CC promoted ‘Portaferry 3-Day’ race sponsored by Curran Transport, Neil McKenna headed south of the border to race in the ‘Tommy Brady Memorial’ in Navan and came home with the prestigious trophy.
Held over 12 laps of a demanding 5 mile circuit with a long climb each lap McKenna joined a small breakaway group of riders on the fifth lap, but this group was never let out of sight by the chasing peleton.
Then on the last circuit just as this group was about to be reeled in the North Down man made his bid for glory, soloing home 30 seconds clear of the chasing pack.
This is a great result for Neil who has had to constantly battle knee injuries and bad health over the last couple of seasons. A result which also proves his undoubted talent, which can hopefully be built upon over the remaining races of the season and into next!!
Meanwhile a team of six from North Down competed in the ‘Curran Transport 3-Day’ in Portaferry over the weekend. These were Paul Ferguson, Sam Craig, Matty Blaney, Matt McInerney, William Barclay and Alan Lavery.
Sam Craig proved most consistent over the three days finishing inside the top twenty and 2nd vet overall closely followed by Paul Ferguson finishing 22nd an 2nd overall in his category in a race dominated by a wealth of the countries top professionals and international riders. Matty Blaney was the only other member of the team to complete the 3 Days a bit further down the General Classification but again showed some of the skill and strength (in his second competitive outing of the year) that he possessed as one of the top junior riders in Brittan.
Club Time Trial.
Last Wednesday evening the Clubs ‘Testers’ were out again over the 25 mile distance on the Portaferry Rd course and some very respectable times were recorded.
Paul Swenarton broke the magic 1Hr barrier with John Hunter on his speedy new stead starting to Knock on the door of some fast times.
Swenarton Paul 00:59:06 Hunter John 01:01:53 McInerney Matt 01:03:25 Wilson Norman 01:05:44 Hodgins Mark 01:08:28 Swenarton Gary 01:08:32 Swenarton Craig 01:09:43 Paul Gordon 01:12:21 Andrews Ciaran 01:13:27
Matt McInerney retakes the lead in the pacemaker challenge guessing within 30 secs of his time and earning 10 points for a total of 57. Mark Hodgins in 2nd got 4 points but had to drop his worst score – 1, having competed in 9 events and is now on 54. Biggest mover was John Hunter with his time of 1:05:53 only 7 seconds under his guess, earning 15 points and moving him to 5th place.
3 more events in the series to go a 10 next week, hill climb and a 5 – still all to play for.