2013 Club League race 6

Club League race 6 - CP, Hill of Down

The penultimate round of the 2013 Club League took place on a new circuit which was hastily arranged at the last minute due to unforeseen circumstances in Kinnegad village, clashing with the planned circuit/time on the night. The new course proved to be quite tough, despite 'looking' like a flat profile on paper.

Everyone assembled in good time to allow for an on-time start from the Hill of Down, and we want to take the opportunity to thank all the marshals for their great help on the night, as this was a course where we needed a bit more help than usual.

Thanks to the wonderful photographers, sometimes putting themselves literally right in the thick of the action!!! - we had lots of cameras point at us tonight and are all looking forward to some great shots available soon!

Thanks also to our visiting riders from Edenderry 905, Rochforbridge and Trim CC - it is always a pleasure to have you join in the races, and you have added to the excitement and overall enjoyment of it all.

Photos are below - special thanks once again to Michelle for providing them! When you press the 'play' button, switch then to full-screen mode, as the photos are all in HQ :)

RACE REPORT:
The race for title of 2013 League Champion was hotting up now as there were only 2 races left - it was all very much wide open coming into this round of the league, so there was all to play for from the main title contenders - a good night's racing was sure to be on the cards!!

All the groups set off quite determined to stay away as long as possible and clock up as many points as they could - unfortunately for Group-2, they missed the road markings at the fork in the road an instead took a detour towards Moyvalley!!
Great effort and hard work saw most of G2 get back on track and jump back in with G4 where they comfortably stuck in with the faster riders.

Meanwhile, the scratch group set off at a blistering pace, powered on by the super-strong 905 and Rochfortbridge riders, and swallowed up the Semi-Scratch group on the first lap. Up ahead, G4 were being reeled in, and on the final lap they had held on to the passing Scratch-Group, and there was a large peleton chasing down the limit groups containing the yellow jersey Peter Schweppe - ahead of them were Marcella and Margaret who were pushing very hard to hold off the advancing groups to the finish.

On the final approach to the line, the large peleton were just seconds behind the Yellow Jersey group - which contained some of the main contenders for the 2013 league title, but all the chasing was to no avail, as up ahead, the duo of Marcella McKeown and Margaret Burke had put in a big effort to stay clear right to the end!!
Marcella and Margaret worked very hard together all through the race to stay clear, and were left to fight it out for the honours on the night between themselves.
The slight uphill to the finish made it quite difficult, and the sprint was hard fought right to the line, with Marcella taking the honours and Margaret taking close second place - a well deserved 1st and 2nd place!!

Behind, the Yellow Jersey group were powering ahead to try and stay clear of the large peleton behind breathing down their necks, and they all managed to stay clear to scoop up the points from 3rd through to 7th place, with John Connell leading the group home to the line to take the 23 points.

In the heat of the run-up to the finish, the large group of Scratch/Semi-Scratch and G4/G2 riders unfortunately saw 2 men caught up in a crash - title contender Shane Walsh hit the deck, and saw some skillful avoidance by Jason Donoghue narrowly avoiding Shane, but still coming away with quite a bit of damage to the bike. Thankfully, Shane was not too badly injured, and will be back to fight for the title in the last round - and also will have a great war-story to tell the Grandkids. Get well soon Shane!!! :)

So, with only one race left in the 2013 league, and a lot of riders about to, or already now feeling the pinch of the 'best-4' rule, we have a wide open finale!!! Michael Kane is the new league leader heading into the final round of the league, followed by the legend Peter Schweppe, and the super-strong Jacob Baldwin in 3rd place. Shane unfortunately crashed out tonight, but will surely be back to battle it out for the title in the final race, scars and all - this could go any way....it's all to play for!!!

Results are below for the night, and the league table is HERE.

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-------------------------------- P R E R A C E I F O R M A T I O N ---------------------------
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Round 6 of this years Club League will take place on TUE 6th AUGUST, at 7pm. The circuit will be 3 laps of a 12k circuit, approx 36k in total.

This particular circuit has a higher marshal requirement, so anyone that has not yet marshalled, and is not already scheduled for this or the last race....we need your help on this one!!!!

First group will be off at 7pm sharp, so please ensure you arrive in good time to sign on, and allow the marshaling team time enough to fit everyone into groups and 'make the calculation' as the man said, to time the gaps between each group.

Sign-On is at the Hill of Down (at the Pub on the canal, just in off the hump-back bridge), which is on the Kinnegad-to-Trim road, approx 5min drive out of Kinnegad.

Sign-On will be from approx 6:30pm or so.

Don't forget the 2-euro sign-on fee - this is just to cover the cost of the prizes and the food after the race.

The circuit is then, left from the Canal bridge towards Kinnegad, left at the first crossroads, heading towards the (actual) Monastery at Clonard, where we will go left, and then left at the fork in the road in the direction of the Kinnegad/Trim road.
We will turn left onto the Kinnegad/Trim Road (NB!!! this junction is quite tight, and onto a busy main road, so you will need to pay full attention to the marshals' instructions on approach)...

corner approach

(approach to corner)

corner 2

(view of on-coming traffic approaching the junction against the race direction)

Finish line will be just before Killyon village, slight uphill to the line...

finish

The league table after the last round can be found HERE.

Don't forget that EVERYONE MUST MARSHAL ONE RACE!!! There are only 2 races left, so if you are not on the Rota, but are taking part in the races, please contact the club email address (clonardroadclub@yahoo.ie) as you risk having your highest points deducted if you fail to marshal - anyone under 16 years old obviously cannot marshal, but if your parents can lend a hand on the night, this will be fine, but please let us know so that we aren't short on the next night and then have too many marshals on the final night!

Please also check with the Marshalling rota in case you are scheduled to marshal this race.
!! Don't forget that a penalty applies if you haven't marshalled a race !!
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