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With many of the countries top riders saving their legs for Ireland’s top classic the Shay Elliott, opportunity was rife for the striking on Saturday at the Corkagh Park crit circuit. Three UCD riders took to the starting block (with as many spectating) the elder state’s man, Noel McGlynn, UCD’s nuclear missile, Ian Richardson and Barrick “Big guns” Parker, who started in the A3/A4 race.

With orders from Noel, Ian attacked from the gun leaving the rest of the group in disarray as they tried to organize a chase. Waterford rider Mark Nugent had anticipated Ian’s early attack and was on his wheel quickly, but was unable to hold his wheel for long and was dropped a few laps in. Ian went into time trial mode and rode the next 10 laps solo before being joined by top Waterford sprinter Robin Kelly, Eurocycles Pat Deegan and Mark Nugent who joined the duo as they bridged the gap to Ian. The group rode well together fortifying their lead by over half a lap, with 5 laps to go Kelly attacked up the finishing straight, shelling Deegan and Nugent from the group with Ian being able to hold on. With his chances of out sprinting Kelly in the final slim to nil, Ian tried hard to shift Kelly off his wheel but was unsuccessful and had to settle for 2nd place.

In the bigger A3/A4 race Barrick rode strong throughout the race and shared the work bringing back the handicapped A4 group. Once brought back he kept himself near the front and out of trouble (a wise move in the more inexperience A3/4 group), he gave a few heroic attacks out of the bunch but was not allowed to get too far before being reeled back in. A dangerous 3 man group got away with 5 laps to go, with Barrick near the front ready to counter if they got brought back, sharing work with the chase, with the group brought back, Barrick and Barry Griffin attacked hard and made it to the finish, with Barrick coming up short in the sprint to take second, a fine result, chapeau sir.

photos available here courtesy of irishcycling.com

After 3 tough days in the Tour of Ulster, the UCD team of Con Collis, Colm Cassidy, Ian Richardson and Anthony Walsh, decided to extend their stay across the border to compete in the gruelling Ulster Team Time Trial Championships. With two of the 4 man team coming top 5 in the Tour of Ulster individual time trial, the UCD boys were hot favourites to win, with the Chain Reaction Cycles – Vitus team and Pheonix CC being the only teams thought capable of preventing the UCD juggernaut from victory.

With the TTT commencing at 7pm the lads had nearly a full day of rest to recuperate from previous 3 days of hard racing and talk over tactics, average power to ride at and go over what they had practised the previous week.

They lined up the the start as the last of 26 teams to go on the very fast woodgreen circuit outside of Ballymena, with a strong wind running the length of the course. They started with a steady pace, taking advantage of the tail wind to bring them up to speed and into their rythms. The riders had agreed on a very effective shouting system during training, shout “OFF!”, when you’re finished your turn and are coming off, or you’re the second rider wanting the come through, “STEADY!”, signalled the rider at the front the keep the pace even as a rider was coming back into the line out, and “LINE!” signalled the rider at the front to hold their line while the rider finished their turn came back into the line out. This plus the confidence and trust each rider had in each others bike handling, results in a very close and effective line out, and was described as the organizers as pure beauty in motion. The team completed the first 10 miles in 20 minutes flat, with the pace increasing. Coming out of the second round-about at Ballymena, the pace started to kick up to make full use of the tailwind, the riders hitting speeds well in excess of 50km/h. Rounding the final round-about with 7km to go the riders picked up the pace again, on the final hill on the course with 4km Colm Cassidy put in a massive turn, ensuring the group stayed close to their 50km/h average speed, before dropping off and letting the other three riders finish without him. With less than 3km to go, the team was hitting speeds in excess of 60km/h, emptying their tanks and giving there all for the final stretch of the course.

They crossed the line in a time of 49.44 over two minutes faster than their nearest rivals, Chain Reaction Cycles, who finished the course in 51.51. The UCD team didn’t manage to break the course record set by Pheonix CC, when 6 time national TT champion David McCann literally dragged three of his team mates around the woodgreen course in a time of 48.15. With some better weather conditions, the UCD team were confident that this record would have been easily beaten.

Thanks must be given to Cycling Ulster for organizing the event and for the warm welcome that the UCD boys were shown, and Also to Ian’s dad Philip who acted as team car and followed behind the team. A write up from cycling Ulster can be found here with photos courtesy of Marian Lamb and Jim Lavery.