Last night saw the second official event on our VC Iveagh Race League, the notorious Castlewellan Road TT. The Castlewellan road course always proves to be a tough event, I’ve seen it described as ‘rolling’ but that description really doesn’t do it justice, as anyone who has raced it can attest. However, the one big factor in the riders favor was the incredibly good run of weather we are currently having, it was another fantastic evening with temperatures peaking at 16 degrees, ideal for some fast times.

Individual TT’s always bring a great deal of excitement and competitiveness, last night was no exception. With an amazing turnout of 34 riders in attendance from ten, yes ten different clubs and the current ‘best’ rider in Ireland taking part the atmosphere was electric. Man of the moment Chris ‘Kipper’ McGlinchey was racing on his brand new Vitus Chrono, a bike literally out of the box and built that day specifically for the race. This was Kipper’s first real go on a TT bike and we were all intrigued to see what he could do, especially on such a tough course.

We kicked off proceedings with our very own Simon Keery first man off at 7pm, each following rider released at one minute intervals. With the quality of the riders involved we knew we were in for some very fast times and it was great to see so many clubs taking part in our Race League, it’s a testament to the club and everyone involved that we can attract riders from such a large demographic and riders that we are now seeing on a regular basis at our events. It does however mean things can get hectic very quickly and the first riders away were returning well before the last rider set off so it was all hands to the pump. As the riders rolled in (blasted past to be more accurate) the times matched the conditions, it was indeed proving to be a fast night and as times were transferred to our time board excitement was once again growing.

The overall winner on the night was no real surprise, Chris McGlinchey (CRC) ripped the Castlewellan Road TT apart with not only a winning time of 21:42 but as far as we are aware it was a new course record. Well done Kipper, absolutely amazing performance, not only on a brand new bike (with a couple of mechanical issues) but also an entirely new discipline, we hope to see you destroying the Plantation Road TT in a couple of weeks.

Within the ranks of the VC Iveagh riders it was of course Neil ‘Rocket’ Seffen who took the spoils with a time of 24:00, a result he was disappointed with and with Paul ‘Ricer’ Rice nipping at his heals he’ll need to get that hair trimmed to gain those marginal seconds. Special mention has to go to Thomas Niblock (WDW) who I was told on the night rode a borrowed TT bike, again possibly his first real go on it so another amazing time of 24:00, extremely well done.

This TT was a continuation of our new partnership with Rice’s Hotel who shall be sponsoring the 2016 VC Iveagh RACE LEAGUE, not only are we running an internal club league but we have also introduced a visitors league. The visitors league is open to any rider from any club, simply compete in over 50% of our races throughout the season for a chance to win a meal for two in Rice’s Hotel, all details can be found in our Sponsorship Announcement post.

A special mention has to go to both the visiting clubs and individual unattached riders, so thank you to the following clubs:

Chain Reaction Cycles
Dromore CC
TVR
SMCC
Phoenix CC
Velo Cafe Magasin
NRPT
West Down Wheelers
Apollo
Portadown CC
Clann Eireann

It’s you guys and girls that make these nights so exciting, we hope you enjoy the events and of course we hope to see you at many more. So it’s now onward and upwards to our next event, a 10 mile individual TT on the Plantation Road, Gilford on Thursday the 5^th May. We hope to see you all there.

Below are last night’s results and the internal and external Race Leagues:

21 April 2016 – 10 Mile ITT Castlewellan Rd

Club Race Results

Visitor League Results

League Standings as of Event 2 (21 April 16)