Tonight’s club race was a 10 mile time trial on the second of our new courses, from Saltwater Brig to Portaferry and back. The general consensus seemed to be that the road surface was a lot better than last week in Cloughey, and although it was hillier there was a good “flow”. Once again it was windy, and the gusts caught out some riders on deeper section rims. The traffic was heavier than expected but didn’t seem to cause any problems for the riders.
Andrew Hedley (AHC Racing) repeated his win of last week, with a slightly faster time. Fastest Ards CC rider Barry Mitchell was also slightly quicker, reflecting a general pattern throughout the field.
| Name | Club | Time | H/cap | HC pts | McF pts | |
| 1 | Andrew Hedley | AHC Racing | 22:16 | |||
| 2 | Michael Boyd | AHC Racing | 22:45 | |||
| 3 | Barry Mitchell | Ards CC | 23:01 | -43 | 7 | 10 |
| 4 | Glen Curry | North Down | 24:00 | |||
| 5 | Marc Allen | AHC Racing | 24:06 | |||
| 6 | Gareth McBride | North Down CC | 24:48 | |||
| 7 | Ben Healey | Ards CC | 24:53 | -41 | 10 | 7 |
| 8 | Graham McConnell | Killinchy CC | 25:10 | |||
| 9 | Roman Sarvas | Ards CC | 26:10 | -80 | 5 | 5 |
| 10 | Alexander Kennedy | AHC Racing | 26:11 | |||
| 11 | Dean Bradley | Ards CC | 27:00 | -95 | 3 | 3 |
| 12 | Graeme Brown | Ards CC | 27:07 | -136 | 2 | 2 |
| 13 | Gillian Orr | North Down CC | 27:40 | |||
| 14 | Brian Wylie | Castlereagh CC | 28:38 | |||
| 15 | Anthony Dodds | AHC Racing | 28:55 |
Barry extended his lead in the McFarlane Cup (based on all club 10 and 25 mile time trials on a scratch basis). There are 3 more events to go, with each rider’s best 4 from 5 counting.
McFarlane Cup – latest standings
| Name | 9/4 Cl.10 | 16/4 SB.10 | 7/5 TBC.10 | 23/7 SB.10 | 11/8 CoC.25 | Total | |
| 1 | Barry Mitchell | 10 | 10 | 20 | |||
| 2 | Ben Healey | 5 | 7 | 12 | |||
| 3 | Roman Sarvas | 3 | 5 | 8 | |||
| 4 | Kevin Briggs | 7 | 7 | ||||
| 5 | Dean Bradley | 3 | 3 | ||||
| 6= | Graeme Brown | 2 | 2 | ||||
| 6= | James Lemon | 2 | 2 | ||||
| 8 | Richard Hanna | 1 | 1 |
And in the handicap stakes, Ben Healey took his second win by just 2 seconds from Barry, to extend his overall lead.
10 mile Handicap Cup – latest standings
| Name | 9/4 Cl.10 | 16/4 SB.10 | 7/5 TBC.10 | 23/7 SB.10 | Total | |
| 1 | Ben Healey | 10 | 10 | 20 | ||
| 2 | Barry Mitchell | 5 | 7 | 12 | ||
| 3 | Roman Sarvas | 3 | 5 | 8 | ||
| 4 | Kevin Briggs | 7 | 7 | |||
| 5 | Dean Bradley | 3 | 3 | |||
| 6= | Graeme Brown | 2 | 2 | |||
| 6= | James Lemon | 2 | 2 | |||
| 8 | Richard Hanna | 1 | 1 |
Thanks as always to the timekeepers, pusher off and turn stewards. The answer to last week’s silhouette photo question was Glen Curry.
Next week is the first round of the Inter Club League – an elimination race at Kirkistown. The detailed rules are still being finalised, but the general plan is to split riders into 3 groups and run a handicap road race. After 20 minutes or so, we’ll start eliminating the tail rider(s) in each group, before letting the survivors fight it out for the win after about an hour’s racing. What could possibly go wrong!?! Don’t miss it!