Eric worked his magic once again for the second hillclimb in the club series. His posse of all women marshals may be attributed to his charm and good looks but his ability to conjure up good weather week in week out during a dire summer can only be attributed to witch craft.

There was a good cross section of the club represented with ladies and juniors tackling the hill. It was the visitors however who did the damage with Shane Farren upholding club honours by taking 3rd place approx 30 seconds down on another blistering attack on Ballyregan Road by Mark Kane (Northern C.C.)

Nicky Frew was the fastest woman on the ascent with Ben McDowell taking the quickest junior time. Excellent times set by both in a difficult discipline.

Next club event will be the two up time trial on 18th August. This should be hotly contested by the sailors as both Garth Beattie and Johnny Webb have been getting some excellent practice in during the season at riding close behind other riders during time trials.

Friday night saw the start of the Newry 3 day with North Down entering a team of 5 riders. Matty Blayney, Paul Ferguson, Richard McCullough, Michael McMullan and Mark Irvine

Started in 1987 Noel McKinley originally organised, sponsored and competed in the race. The race has always been very popular and is a great stepping stone for riders of the future. Many past winners have gone onto take bigger wins in their careers and quite a few have turned professional.

The action kicked off on Friday night in Warrenpoint with a 44 mile stage.The race took in 3 laps of the carriageway before tackling Grinan Hill then the boys charged into Warrenpoint completing 3 laps of the old circuit before finishing outside the police station. On the night it came down to a bunch sprint with Matty Blayney just being pipped at the post and having to make do with second. This meant that three riders were to go into the time trial on equal time in the GC. It didn’t go all Matty’s way that night though with breaks getting away with Richard McCullough getting away in on the action before they were reeled in prior to the finish.

Picture Courtesy of Toby Watson

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It’s been another busy week for the North Down athletes but being Bangor’s largest club means that we can cover most cycling events throughout the country. Action kicked off on Wednesday evening with the popular Ards CC Crit round the Newtownards Street circuit. High speed action ensured with North Down putting riders competing in every event. Notably the club entered a high number of junior riders. Well done to all – you’re the stars of tomorrow.

Ards Crit 

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Our own John Hunter took a break from his road season recently to make a return to his usual discipline of time trialing. John has been setting some fine times on the club Time Trail series so it’s good to see him taking the fight to the best in Ulster.   It was the  third and final Spires Trilogy TT and  took place on the Toome course. There was a good turnout of 31 cyclists on  what was a very windy night. The very strong Easterly tail wind on the outward leg saw some very fast times to the half way turn. It was a very different story on the way back with a real slog and difficulties getting even close to 20mph in sections. David McCann was the outright winner setting a very fast time for the conditions of 20:55 in what was a good training night for his Olympics later in the year.  John himself managed an excellent eighth place. A result he will rightfully be very proud of.

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