Cycling night out
Western Lakes CC and Covey Wheelers have combined together to have a joint club night out on Friday September 19 at 8pm at the Castlecourt Hotel in Westport. The aim is to get as many cycling enthusiasts as possible to come along and enjoy a fun- packed evening of awards and presentations
The night will also be used to present prizes to the top ten overall in the 11-round combined club league which started way back in April and finishes on September 11 with a hill climb up Lally’s mountain in Tourmakeady. Western Lakes CC will also present their annual club awards for most active youth cyclist, racing cyclist and leisure cyclist of the year, along with club person of the year for the 2008 season. Accommodation can be arranged at the Castlecourt at special rates contact Padraig. Tickets can be got from Padraig Marrey or Martin McNally. Numbers have to be finalised by Wednesday September 17.
Western Lakes CC AGM
The club will be holding its annual general meeting on Thursday September 25 at 8pm in the Parish Centre, Ballinrobe. All members are requested to attend plus anyone new who would like to get involved in the sport of cycling. Reports of the club’s activities for 2008 will be heard on the night.
Club league
Round 10 of the club league again had big numbers participating, with 43 riders. This round was also used to identify the most improved rider of the league by seeing how much the riders could improve their times in the ten mile TT. Back in April the riders rode the ten mile TT from Ballinrobe to Ballygarris and back now they had the chance to repeat it and see how much they had improved in six months. The results were staggering with minutes being taken of their PBs and even on a bad wet night it was plain to see that fitness levels and techniques had improved immensely. U12 rider Damien Biggins (Ballinrobe )won this round by taking a massive 7 minutes and 32 seconds off his April time, Ronan Joyce (Cloughbrack ) bettered his time by five minutes 50 seconds, third place went to U16 rider Brendan Scullion (Renvyle ) with an improvement of five minutes 46 seconds. Fastest on the night was Padraig Marrey with 23 minutes and 22 seconds.
Mayo cyclists do well at Gael Force 6
Colm Staunton, Padraig Marrey, Mary Mulchrone, Brendan Butler, Miceal, Eoin and James Brady all performed very well at the GF6 adventure race event held recently in the Mayo Galway area. The event started at Glassin Beach near Killary Fojrd, Leenane Co Galway at 7.30am on Saturday August 23. The event involves running, kayaking, cycling and climbing Croagh Patrick- these just some of the obstacles before the gruelling event finishes at Westport house some 65k later.
Colm Staunton put in a savage performance to get third overall in the GF6 event with a great time of 3hrs 36mins and 52sec beating his previous best by nearly 60 minutes, which is a huge improvement. Mary Mulchrone dropped one place from last year results to finish second lady overall but still bettered her time by 20 minutes to finish in a time of 4 hrs 18mins and 14 sec. She was pipped by 2004 Olympian (MTB ) Jenny Mc Cauley from Bray who completed the course in 4hrs 11mins and 53 sec. Padraig on the other hand was having great race until 4 miles to go, while leading the race he punctured a tyre and had to rim it to the line after wasting valuable minutes trying to fix the puncture with a broken aerosol pump. He still managed to finish fourth as three competitors passed him close to the finish. He still bettered his time of last year with 3hrs 37mins and 5 sec.
Eoin Brady finished first in the junior category and eighth overall, to do a time of 3hrs 52mins and 3 seconds. Brendan Butler finished second in the junior category and ninth overall, to do a time of 3hrs 59mins and 17seconds. James Brady finished third in the junior category and 11th overall, with a time of 4hrs 3mins and 43seconds. Micheal Brady finished 31st overall and seventh in the over 40 section, in a time of 4hrs 18mins and 23seconds. Both Padraig and Mary would like to thank Pat Jennings proprietor of Days Hotel, Castlebar, for sponsoring them for the event. Eight hundred and thirty participants took part in this gruelling event and it looks like numbers will double for 2009
