TESTING TIMES FOR NORTH DOWN CYCLISTS
With most of North Down's road men enjoying a short period of recovery
after the Tour of the North, club training in Majorca, time trialling
and the Tour of the Glens cyclosportive have been the focus of riders'
attentions over the past ten days.
The club's first 10 mile time trial of the season gave the club's
newest riders the opportunity to make their mark in the hotly contested
Espoirs' competition, a contest for newcomers to competitive cycling.
Leader in the competition, Noel Boyce, was up against his closest rival
Philip Downie but it was Downie who paced himself better to clock
27.59, beating the gold standard time by one second. Fastest on the
night was top veteran tester Declan McMackin who recorded 23.55
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19th April 10 MileTime Trial
| POSITION | NAME | TIME | Standard |
| 1 | D McMackin | 23:55 | |
| 2 | L Curran | 2533 | |
| 3 | P Downie | 27:59 | ( Novice gold standard ) -subject to dope test. |
| 4 | G Swenarton | 28:06 | |
| 5 | E Blayney | 28:51 | ( Novice silver standard ) |
| 6 | M Geddis | 29:03 | ( Novice silver standard ) |
| 7 | N Boyce | 29:11 | ( Novice silver standard ) |
| 8 | M Hodgins | 29:40 | ( Novice bronze standard ) |
| 9 | T Johnston | 29:59 | ( Novice bronze standard ) |
| 10 | G Boyle | 30:24 |
Novice standards: Gold under 28.00, Silver under 29.30, Bronze under 31.00
18 April 2006
TOUR OF THE NORTH COMES TO TOWN
The cycling enthusiasts of North Down CC have had plenty to keep them busy in the past week. The club's very active touring section had its first outing but the main event was, of course, the P&O Irish Sea Tour of the North, Northern Ireland's premier stage race. Blessed with dry weather for the most part a full field of 135 riders battled it out over the four days of the Easter weekend. The prologue at Stormont was a close run thing and it was a Junior rider, Sam Webster of Team Kinesis who snatched the leader's jersey from Ards rider Martyn Irvine at the last minute on Friday evening, winning the tough hill sprint in a time of 2 mins 13secs, just one second ahead of Irvine. Previous winners Tommy Evans and Ryan Connor were only a few seconds behind the leading two and most observers were predicting that it would be Evans and Connor who would be the men to watch, both having recently returned from the Commonwealth Games in good form.
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12th April 5.5 Mile Circuit Time Trial
| POSITION | NAME | TIME | Standard |
| 1 | D McMackin | 13:46 | |
| 2 | P Swenarton | 14:29 | |
| 3 | L Curran | 14:32 | |
| 4 | K Millar | 15:06 | |
| 5 | J Hunter | 15:19 | |
| 6 | N Wilson | 15:26 | |
| 7 | N Boyce | 16:30 | ( Novice Gold Standard ) |
| 8 | O Parkes | 16:35 | ( Novice Gold Standard ) |
| 9 | G Swenarton | 16:36 | |
| 10 | P Downie | 16:41 | ( Novice Gold Standard ) |
| 11 | T Belford | 16:52 | |
| 12 | R Donaldson | 17:11 | ( Novice Silver Standard ) |
| 13 | M Geddis | 17:14 | ( Novice Silver Standard ) |
| 14 | T Johnston | 1718 | ( Novice Silver Standard ) |
| 15 | R McClelland | 17:23 | ( Novice Silver Standard ) |
| 16 | F Millar | 19:34 |
Novice Standard targets ; Bronze= under 19 mins. Silver= under 18 mins. Gold= under 17 mins.
11 April 2006
SIMMONS SHOWS EARLY FORM
North Down's Tommy Simmons came close last weekend to snatching the club's first win of the season. At the Sean McGreevy Memorial race held on the hilly Dromore circuit, Simmons and Peter McConville (Newry Wheelers ) broke away to take a commanding four minute lead over the rest of the pack but in the uphill finish McConville proved to be the stronger of the two and he forged ahead to win by eight seconds.
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4 April 2006
GAMES CYCLISTS RETURN WITH GOOD FORM
A week after contributing to an excellent team performance at the Commonwealth Games, several riders were back in action at last Saturday's big race ,t he Tour of Ards, a 100km circuit of the Ards peninsula organised by Ards CC and supported by Biznet Solutions. A field of around 100 riders rolled out in fine weather on a controlled lap of Ards town centre, arranged as a gesture of respect for Bobby Adair, a stalwart of the Ards club who died a few weeks ago. Games rider Ryan Connor was grateful for the neutralised start as he punctured after a few hundred yards but was soon able to make contact again.
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