The Dan Morrissey Carrick Wheelers club promoted a full programme of races on Sunday last to honour the memory of their former chairman and president Tommy Sheehan, and this consisted of five separate races for all grades which started and finished on the Coolnamuck road in Carrickbeg.
All the top cyclists from Munster and south Leinster came to town to race over the renowned Kearney’s Road circuit, which has built up a reputation as one of the toughest in the country. All grades of underage riders were catered for, and first up was the under 14 race who raced from Kilsheelan to Carrickbeg. A large group of 15 young riders were in the lead group at the finish, and in an exciting sprint to the line, Michael O’Loughlin of the promoting club just held off a fast finishing Henry Cooke of Limerick CC for a terrific win and get the day’s racing off to a flying start.
Next up were the under 12 year olds, and in a three up sprint for the finish, Barry O’Donovan of Kanturk CC was the worthy winner just ahead of Conor Healy of Fermoy CC. Now it was on to the full Kearney’s Road circuit, where the under 16’s together with the category A4 seniors raced over two laps, the category A3’s did three laps, and finally the main race for category A1’s and A2’s did four laps.
Local riders were very much to the fore in these races, with Waterford’s Comeragh CC having a great day, winning both the three lap and two lap races. Barry Griffin had a great win in the A4 race, just ahead of Oliver Winis of Galtee Wheelers and John Brady of Fermoy, while in the under 16 section of that race Simon Fox of Fermoy CC came home alone, with Pierre de Leestar of Waterford Sportif just edging out Sean Hahessy of Carrick Wheelers for second place.
The second win of the day for Comeragh CC came courtesy of a powerful sprint victory by Thomas Lavery, who got the better of another local rider, the very promising Conor O’Shea of Piltown who is riding with Killorglin CC. These two were just 100 metres ahead of a group of 25 riders who sprinted for third place, where Edward Barry of Blarney CC proved best.
Finally it was down to the main event for the Tommy Sheehan Memorial Cup, and with four laps of the notoriously difficult Kearney’s road circuit to be covered, the main bunch was never going to stay intact for long, and so it proved again this year. The new Cork city team of Edge CC have dominated the Munster racing circuit this season, and when a leading group of five broke clear of the field and went on to dominate the race, the Edge team had an amazing four of the five riders present. The odd man out was All Ireland veteran’s champion Rory Wyley of Carrick Wheelers, who revelled in the tough terrain but realistically had little or no chance against the well organised Edge team. On the last lap Cathal McCarthy powered ahead from the leading group and came home alone for a superb solo victory, while behind Rory Wyley did really well to get the better of the rest of the Edge team and sprint into second place ahead of Sean Lacey.
Carrick Wheelers chairman Bobby Sheehan, nephew of the late Tommy Sheehan, presented the prizes to all the winners afterwards, and thanked all who helped make the day such a great success, with a special word of thanks to the local Gardaí and Civil Defence who together with the club’s own stewards ensured that the all the cyclists had a safe and accident free day’s racing. He also thanked the Carrick United and St. Mollerans clubs for the use of their premises, and finally club secretary Paul Lonergan for the huge amount of work in the overall organising of the event and ensuring that everyone enjoyed yet another great day’s cycle racing in Carrick.
Watch video of finish here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_iewwyBBXw
L to R: Bobby Sheehan (Club Chairman), Rory Wyley, Cathal McCarthy, Sean Lacey & Paul Lonergan (Club Secretary).
Photo: Joe Cashin
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