John Clyde is fastest over Kinallen circuit

This is only the second time that the club have used this hilly circuit and is probably the toughest race of the season.

Adding to the challenge this evening was some strong winds and threatening rain, sharp contrast to the weather we had at this venue last year.

Forty riders signed up for this event and were sorted into five starting groups by Trevor and Nigel. With the nature of this circuit the club had to use 12 marshals to cover all the junctions.

Racing started around 7:15pm with the first two groups separated by only 30 seconds. All riders had to complete four laps apart from our youngest competitor, Connor Mallon, who rode his two laps strongly.

Group three, which had seven riders, started five minutes after Group Two and in this group were two visitors from the Banbridge club, Stephen Hanna and Mark Downey. Group Four had nine riders including another two Banbridge visitors, Kevin McAlinden and Scott Daly and they started four minutes behind Group Three.

Group Five contained the fastest riders and among these nine riders were visitors Tony Hare (Apollo CT) and Stephen Baines (East Antrim) and they started four minutes behind Group Four, 13.5 minutes behind Group One.

By the end of lap one groups one and two had joined up with the remaining groups staying together but each gaining time on the group in front. Unfortunately Gavin Magowan suffered a puncture on his first lap.

At the end of lap two the four groups were still together although the tough circuit had forced Owen McManus to stop and Peter Swann also suffered a puncture. By the end of lap three the first group were still together and 3.5 minutes ahead of group two with Mark Downey trying to bridge the gap. Ian Proctor was finding the course tough and Paul Jess had also pulled out.

Going into the final lap it was John McGuigan and Adrian Cunningham with John Cylde holding onto the leading two. At the finish John and Adrian battled it out for the line with John finishing a good four bike lengths ahead of Adrian, John Clyde held onto third, Trevor Wright came in on his own in fourth, with lone rider Craig McDowell finishing three seconds behind him before Caroline Patterson and Kevin McDonald crossed the line together.

Caroline was the only women riding. The juniors rode a strong race with Christopher Weir taking the win well ahead of Zak Hanna. The original Group Four had caught Group Three by the line with Group Five not working well together tonight and coming in at the end.

Thirty five of the original 40 finished the race and with the rain starting to come on the riders dispursed quickly. Many thanks to the timekeepers and marshals.