Youth tour of Ireland

[Roger]

Stage one of the Kerry international youth tour started in blazing hot conditions that gave the feel more of France than Ireland. The cat 1 race contained club riders Martin Beech and Leigh Andrews along with Steven Adams (Sherwood CC) and David Fletcher (Newark Castle) riding for the East Mids. Division, the race was on the undulating Beaufort circuit in the shadow of the mountains of the ring of Kerry and 52.5K in length.
The race started in nervous fashion with some minor crashes in the bunch not catching any Div riders out, the pace was high with few chances to break and any that did soon being brought back by the strong Dutch and South African squads – the Belgians playing catch up after a puncture to one of their favoured riders early in the stage, unusually for this stage it was set for a bunch sprint for the riders left in the lead group of 37, the rest of the 82 starters having been dropped by the fierce pace (the only Div rider being caught out being David who had a bad spell at the wrong moment). The sprint went to Schnackers of Belgium from Robinson of South Africa and Enright of one of the home teams Kanturk, Steve 14th , Martin 29th and Leigh 34th all on standard, Dave coming in dehydrated in 48th in company with a couple of the S Africans and a Dutch rider. Stage 2 was the TT over 3.5K with all the lads knowing that they just needed to put in a decent time to prepare for the afternoon stage of Sunhill where minutes rather than seconds could be lost or gained. Five laps of the circuit and five climbs of what is locally named the wall waited for the riders in the 40k third stage and all four lads were determined to stick to the lead group if at all possible. Disaster struck for Steve when he was brought down in a crash with the Yellow jersey Michael Robinson of S.A. on lap 1, Steve waited five minutes before getting Neutral service and for him it was a four and a half lap lone chase to the finish, meanwhile the other three were in the front group of thirty riders that went away from the rest on the first climb of the day and were active in keeping the rest at bay until the fourth of the five climbs when Leigh lost ground along with a lot of others as riders started to attack on the climb, Martin and David (who was feeling much livelier today) were still in there with the lead group as the selections were made, through the town and out into the country things were fairly quiet as the group summoned its strength for the final assault on the hill. At the foot of the final climb David went to the front and put the pressure on to split the bunch apart leaving riders strung out all up the climb of just over a mile, riding brilliantly to try and maintain his advantage over the last 2 miles into town he was caught by some of the stronger riders but held on to a great 10th place at 5sec with Martin grabbing 22nd at 29sec, Leigh 38th at 3min 12sec and Steve struggling in 64th at 11min 21sec after a brave solo ride on a day when seven riders abandoned. Into the fourth and final stage around the famous Donal McKenna circuit used by all the major Irish tours and another 40K race with the added pressure at the top of only 1sec separating Bellis of Manx RC, O’sullivan of Ireland and Hartmann of VC Ardennes. The Div boys now had their eye on the Team classement and a stage win if possible, with 66 riders left out of the original 82 it was another race of attrition when there was a fifteen rider pile up on the first lap which all four lads managed to avoid by being well up in the bunch, with small breaks going up the road and being pulled back by watchful Irish and S.A. riders into the final half lap and Martin went to the front to put the speed up and place Steve in with a chance of a sprint win, this put a lot of riders into difficulties with team Corrado riders joining the train to pull it along to the advantage of their man Mcnally as Martin swung off for the last time Steve was in the lead at the turn before the uphill finish but had just too much to do and was good for 10th at the line with Leigh 24th, Dave 26th and Martin 37th all at 6sec. The General Classement finished with Bellis taking the overall with Mcnally 2nd and Hartmann 3rd Martin 22nd at 58sec, Leigh 27th at3min 46sec, Dave28th at 4min 12sec and Steve 41st at 11min 37sec and ruing the crash earlier in the tour. In the young rider classement Leigh took 9th and Dave 10th out of 30 finishers – a great result for the team. In the overall Team Classement the boys got a fantastic 4th place in front of Holland, South Africa, Belgium (and best of all) West Midlands who they beat by 11min. The team win going to Corrado with Ireland 2nd and Manx 3rd. All in all a fantastic tour with the boys doing themselves and the Division proud.

Report courtesy of Steve Parsons

[veloriders]

A few photo's of the East Midland Div Youth Team are now on the Gallery, courtesy of Steve Parsons, Thanks Steve.