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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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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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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NORTHERN IRELAND CYCLISTS BEST OF BRITISH
As the inquest continues into Northern Ireland's poorest performance in decades at the Commonwealth Games, the cycling team, while winning no medals, can take heart from the fact that in the two major road events, the time trial and the road race, they outperformed riders from the other Home Nations.
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CYCLISTS JUST OUTSIDE THE MEDALS
It has often been said that the worst finishing position in a major championship is fourth place, the reasoning being that the records will only show the medal winners and, as for the rest, finishing fourth is not much better than finishing twentieth.  This is rather an ungracious attitude and , in the case of Northern Ireland's cyclists at the Commonwealth Games, it denies credit for top class performances from riders who have had to prepare during the dark winter months for the big events, coming as they have at a time when riders are normally still in the process of getting race fit for a season that doesn't start until March.
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