Moore takes Harry Reynolds Memorial

Bill Moore

Stamullen M. Donnelly’s Bill Moore announced his return to competition with an emphatic victory in the Harry Reynolds Memorial in Balrothery tonight. The Stamullen man sprinted home at the head of a six man breakaway group that had materialised in the closing laps and despite raising his arms early, held on for his first win of 2004.

The race was handicapped into three groups with the 3rd Cats and Ladies starting first, followed by the Veterans and Juniors and then the 2nd and 1st Cats. Held over eight laps of an undulating 4 mile circuit, the pace of the scratch group soon saw the field split and halfway through the race some of these made contact with the front group.

With three laps to go, Andrew McQuaid (Emerald CC) attacked on a climb just after the finish and was soon joined by Moore. These two foraged ahead for half a lap before being joined by Timmy Barry (Carrick Cidona), Philip Cassidy (Cycleways Lee-Strand), Brian Aherne (Naas Rubex) and Laurence Roche (North Kildare). With the Stamullen M. Donnelly trio of Mick Nulty, Simon Mulvaney and Stephen McKenna countering any moves behind, this proved the decisive split.

Despite attacks and counter-attacks over the final four miles, the race was decided in a sprint with Moore holding off a fast finishing McQuaid and Aherne either side to take the spoils. “While this race was my first real target of the year, I wasn’t really expecting to win tonight” said Moore afterwards. After a 2-year lay-off from cycling, the Golden Pages rep is just back from a week’s holiday in South Africa where he managed to squeeze in a win in a local tandem race. “I can only really train 3 hours a week, with work and stuff but I went out on Wednesday and did my usual circuit and felt like I was floating. I had 27 miles done in the hour, so I must have been going well. Hopefully now with the longer evenings I’ll be able to get out a bit more!”



Results Harry Reynolds Memorial
1. Bill Moore (Stamullen M. Donnelly)
2. Andrew McQuaid (Emerald)
3. Brian Aherne (Naas Rubex)
4. Timmy Barry (Carrick Cidona)
5. Laurence Roche (North Kildare)
6. Phil Cassidy (Cycleways)
Second Category
1. N. McGlynn (Ravens)
2. B. Woods (Killorglin)
3. P. Dunne (Navan Avonmore)
Third Category
1. A Bracken (Kilcullen)
2. A Cole (McNally Joinery Swords)
3. J. Stack (Blessington)
Ladies
1. Joanie Burke (Dundrum Shopping Centre Orwell)
2. Breda McNally (McNally Joinery Swords)
Juniors
1. Maurice O’Brien (Kanturk Credit Union)
2. Stephen McKenna (Stamullen M. Donnelly)
3. Sean Rock (McNally Swords)