Cycling Reports

TIM CASSIDY WINS IN STAMULLEN

(By Gerard Cromwell Apr 24) Tim Cassidy of the Usher Insulations IRC took his third win of the season at Stamullen when outsprinting the previous day's winner Paudie O'Brien for the Jimmy Gough Cup on Saturday.

After a solo attack by Brian Holmes of the Slane Cycles team in Belfast saw the veteran northerner lead up the climb on the first lap, the race settled down to a steady rhythm with few attacks of note. As usual, the climb of Snowtown Hill took it's toll on the field and by the last ascent of the climb the bunch had been whittled down considerably. Holmes again launched an attack at the bottom of the climb but was reeled in halfway up by Cassidy and the remainder of the field. On the steep right hand bend leading up to the top of the climb, Cassidy launched a blistering attack and and only O'Brien (Kanturk) made it across the gap.

On the descent these two worked hard to open a decent gap but were eventually caught by a group containing Cassidy's Usher teammates Stephen Enright and Dave Rawlins and two Northern riders Sean Adair (Northern CC) and Eoin Smith (Ards) on the main Naul -Balbriggan road. As the road went upwards again on the climb towards Flemington, Cassidy again attacked and this time O'Brien used a lot of reserves to get across. These two forged clear of the chase group and held a ten second lead until one kilometre to go when Cassidy and O'Brien slowed as they tried to outfox each other in the lead up to the final sprint. The Usher rider had the upper hand with two teammates coming back up and O'Brien was forced to lead out the sprint. Cassidy came around the little Cork man on the line as Stephen Enright took third right behind them. Rawlins rounded off a good day for Usher Insulations with 4th. "I knew if I brought Paudie to the line he'd beat me in a sprint, so I kept attacking on the hills, " said Cassidy afterwards "but he kept getting across to me! I wasn't going to lead it out. I made him lead it out because I had teammates behind me and I just came around him." Cassidy, who trains with his father Jim who rides as a veteran for the Garda Motorway team is in 5th year in school now and with no exams to study for hopes for a good end of season. "At the moment I'm just doing long, steady spins. I'm not doing any intervals or anything like that because it's too early. The races at the moment don't really bother me, it's later on, in August, that I want to be going well, for the Nationals and the Junior Tour and hopefully the worlds." Paudie O'Brien, winner of the Brendan Carroll memorial against senior opposition, was happy enough with his performance. "I'm happy enough with second. It was a very tough race and the hill was hard. Cassidy kept attacking on the hills so it was really hard!"

Stamullen Grand Prix "What they said

By Gerard Cromwell Apr 24

PAT HOWARD MEMORIAL

"It was a good race, we were lucky to stay away in the end. A tough course.  I'm a mountainbiker so I like the hills!" C Mullen (3rd )

"It was a fun day at the office. I'm not really a climber, so I had to keep trying to get away on the flat, but there was this big hill that kept holding me up. On the last lap a group of 8 went up the road and I thought that was it, but luckily they came back and we got away on the Naul road." - Kenny Conlon (2nd).

"It's nice to win. It was a good race, excellent course, the hill was very hard. There's no racing up North, so I had to take a day off work to come down. I don't usually race down south because I work weekends. The hill was very difficult especially the second part. I tried very hard to get away more than once but kept getting chased down.  I think it's better to keep trying than to ride negatively. I'd love to ride the ras, if I can get a team. " 35 year old Sean Wright winner of the Jimmy Gough Cup.

JOEY WHYTE MEMORIAL

"I just reckoned I'd done nothing for the rest of the race so I better do something at the end!" Phil Cassidy on his newly acquired bunch sprinting skills. "It was an excellent race. I think it's good for cycling to see such a big group going out on the last lap. Other years, you'd have one or two, maybe a ten man group. Everybody rode really well today. I tried to get out of the bunch but the racing was too good. It was great to have such a big crowd cheering us at the line each lap. This is the race of the year as far as I'm concerned." Cassidy again after finishing 3rd in the Joey Whyte memorial.

"Scanlon was the man on the day. He's like a motorbike ! It was a great race, there was no slacking off right from the start. Every time coming through the line you couldn't hear yourself think!" Shane Prendergast (2nd)

"It was my first time to race in Stamullen, so it's great to win. We arrived an hour and a half early so we drove around the course this morning. I got a bit of a shock when we turned the corner and saw the hill." Mark Scanlon winner of the Joey Whyte memorial.

"I didn't want to risk just taking it easy and riding up and over to the finish, if Cassidy had done a bit of driving or something - he has a big team - then maybe we would have been caught, so I just rode hard and unfortunately dropped Shane. Im feeling stronger than this time last year. Last year I had 17 days racing by now, this is only my 8th race, I think, so I need a bit more racing. I'm going to ride the big races with Nantes and the rest with the Irish team. I ride the Espoirs paris - Roubaix on June 3rd, so that's the big aim for June." Scanlon again.