Dromara quartet’s odyssey in Omagh

2 August 2017

DROMARA Cycling Club sent four riders to the Spar Tour of Omagh three-day event.

With Johnny Ward training for UCI world-ranked events, Neil Armstrong, Brian Kellett and Darren McCann had to undertake a bit of secret training so as to not let the side down.

The event is a four-stage race with Friday night being a 43-mile road race, Saturday starting with a 2.5 mile TT and then in the afternoon a 46-mile road race and Sunday finishing with a 44-mile road race with a steep climb close to the end.

The Dromara lads found conditions tough with the inclement weather conditions, but Ward would see his efforts pay off with two top six finishes in the first two road races to earn him the points leader’s jersey, only for it to be cruelly snatched away from him on the final stage.

Both McCann and Ward were in the top 10 of the general classification for most of the weekend. Alas, bad luck would see Kellett crash on the first road stage, but this wouldn’t stop him from climbing back on the bike and suffering for the next days.

Neil Armstrong is like a quiet assassin and managed to stay upright all weekend, taking a top 10 finish on Saturday’s road race.

Sunday’s race was meant to be an altogether more civilised affair with 120 riders all tired and stiff from the previous two days’ racing. Unfortunately, everyone missed the memo on the 44-mile stage with a killer climb 30 miles into it.

With Ward looking to keep his points jersey and McCann sitting eighth in overall general classification, it was all to play for and the race took off faster than ever.

The 1.2 mile climb smashed the race to pieces and in the end, that’s where it all went wrong.

McCann was first over for Dromara, some 20 seconds back on the leaders, and pushed hard to get back on to the group, but ended up losing further time on the treacherous descent with his newfound sense of self preservation after the previous days crash.

Ward was next over, followed by Armstrong who joined up with him to work their way to the finish line together. The team finished fifth overall for their efforts, seeing off teams from all corners of Ireland.

Not bad for a team in their first season of open racing. A massive thank you to all involved in sending the team and looking after them during the race. A special thanks to Sy Morrison, Stephen Phillips, Matthew Armstrong, Aaron Watson, Calvin Moore, Robert McDonald and Kevin Walker who made the long haul up to Omagh over the weekend to drive in the team car.

The Ulster MTB Championships were held at Castlewellan on Sunday with Ulster’s finest mountain bikers ready to see who was the best. The first race up with Dromara CC representation was the U-8 girls’ race, which has been a hotly contested category all season.

Aoife Kellett has been been training hard and needed to produce a superb race to try and make the podium. The first lap was fast and furious with Aoife sitting in third place with fourth and fifth placed riders right beside her.

Clearly, all the hard training had paid off as she pulled further away from the other girls to hold on to any awesome third place.

The next race up was the U-10 girls’ race which would see Lexi Broome show her excellent mtb skills to battle around a tough course with a close battle for the top honours. Another junior eager to show she has been training hard and would take a hard earned third place only 10 seconds of the second place rider.

In the U-10 boys’ race James Armstrong showed he has really improved from the start of the year with a fine ride to take 8th place with the next three riders only seconds away it will be interesting to see what he can achieve next year in this category.

The U-16 boys’ race is full of some of the best mountain bike talent that Ulster has seen for sometime. Ben Wilson regularly shows his skills at the Dromara Club League nights putting many older riders to shame.

This is his first year in the U-16 category and expectations of him making the podium were not as high, compared to his dominance at the U-14 category.

Clearly, he has been working hard to get faster and faster which would lead to this epic performance taking a clear second place.

The women’s race saw Wannita Broome take to the start line hoping to just make it around in one piece, which wasn’t the case on Friday night’s practice. Wannita produced a great first lap and holding second place it was just a matter keeping ahead of a fast finishing Ruth Aiken.

Thankfully, Wannita would prevail and take her second place on the podium with Ruth a mere five seconds back.

The M40 race is certainly not a place for old men to potter around and in fact is becoming one of the toughest categories. Brian Wilson produced a great effort over a tough course to take eighth place.

Davy Broome and Graham Smyth took to the start line for the M30’s race with all the pressure on Broome following the family’s podium success earlier in the day.

Bad luck was to strike Davy with first a puncture, then a mechanical that left him battling through the crowd to take fifth place although losing bragging rights at home. Graham produced a battling performance to take an excellent eighth place.

This left the final race of the day and Barry Kellett produced a superb ride against some very tough competitors to claim fifth place with David Montgomery taking the Ulster Championship victory.

Many thanks need to go the Banbridge Cycling Club who put on a brilliant and professional race.

Tweets by @TheDownRecorder