Sixteen year old Sean Dillon has taken the 2012 Tipperary Wheelers Club League title. He was the overwhelming favourite going into the eighth and final stage of the league and he delivered on the night.
The final stage was held on the rolling Cashel Road out-and-back circuit, but the race itself belonged to a couple of Cat 1 riders. Given the improvements of the lower category riders’ time trial times, the handicaps were reduced from those calculated on Stage 4, where all the Cat 1 riders overhauled everybody on the road. Sean set off in the Cat 4 group out onto the circuit with a tailwind on the way out. The other groups followed and largely stayed together on the way out. The Cat 1’s however were blown apart after only a few kilometres with Simon Ryan and Dermot Radford combining to set a pace that could only be matched by Mike Looby. Mike held on for a while but eventually dropped off a few kilometres from the halfway turn on the roundabout. The pair continued to work together to overtake everybody on the road and lined up side by side for the sprint. Simon took the sprint by about half a wheel to gain maximum bonus points. The one remaining bonus point went to the improving Jimmy Hally who finished about 2 minutes back. Sean crossed the line comfortably in eighth position.
Sean took first place overall in the league, second place went to Jimmy “Veno” Beston and third went to Simon. There was a three way tie for fourth place between Nora Cunningham, Mary Ryan and Rob Walsh. There was also a prize given to the rider that was felt to best encapsulate the ethos of the club league, and that prize went to JP Dilian. Congratulations to all the winners and to everybody who participated. It is the participants that ensure the success of the league and we hope we have proved this year again that our league is unique in its ability to render a fair competition between cyclists of all levels and abilities.
The club would like to thank all participants, marshals and everybody who contributed in any way to making the league such an immense success. Congratulations to Sean and all the winners, until next year!.....
Enjoy the photographs below taken by Dick Walsh
The 8th and final stage of the Tipperary Wheelers Club League will take place on Tuesday 21 August. Sign on will take place at 6.45pm at the Sports Complex in Tipp Town with the first Cat 4 riders off at 7pm. The stage will take place on the Cashel route, identical to that used for Stage 4.
Due to the weather the race tonight is cancelled for safety reasons. It will be held next tuesday instead. details will be posted on the site in due course. Sorry for any disruption caused. Safety must come first.
The final stage of the Tipperary Wheelers 2012 club league will take place on Wednesday 15 August, with sign on at 7pm in the Sports Complex. The route will be that used during Stage 4, taking riders from town out the Cashel road, turning at the roundabout and back into town. The route proved to be tough the last time out and the Cat 1’s managed to overhaul everybody on the road to share the bonus points amongst themselves. The handicaps for the night have been calculated based on Stage 7 time trial performances and are as follows:
Looking at the current league table and removing each rider’s lowest time trial points from their tally shows that Sean Dillon has an almost unassailable lead… almost! The only rider who can mathematically overhaul him is Galtee Wheelers’ Rob Walsh who sits 8 points behind Sean but with a low race score of just one point and can potentially gain 9 points, therefore if he was to win the Cat 3 group Rob could potentially overhaul Sean. It will be interesting to see how the tactics will play out but in reality it is very difficult to see how Rob can do anything about Sean’s lead. He may however have his eye on taking the runner up spot, which itself would be a good result but Jimmy Beston may have something to say about that. Jimmy and Rob race in the same category and with the route more suited to Jimmy he should be able to finish in front of Rob, but Rob does not need to beat him, just gain some good points on the night. Behind those it is a straight out battle between Mary Ryan and Nora Cunningham with both having a low points score of 8 points it is a simple matter of first over the line will get the higher finish.
Looking further down, Simon Ryan of DMG Visit Nenagh is the only other rider who can jump up the table. In order to do so Simon must gain the maximum of 13 points and nobody would bet against him doing so. He will need the other Cat 1 riders to drive the pace from the very start and help him pull back the handicaps but if it comes into a sprint nobody will get near him.
Sean may have one hand on the trophy, however the places behind him are far from sorted out. Will those vying for a position turn to their teammates for assistance or will they look for riders within their own categories for help? Whatever the scenario, it should turn out to be an exciting conclusion to the league.
Prizes will be handed out immediately after the finish at the Sports Complex, along with the tea and sandwiches and we would invite everybody that has taken part in the league or helped with marshalling to join us. It will take a short while to do the calculations so bear in mind that it will be getting dark once everything is finished.
The penultimate stage of the 2012 Tipperary Wheelers Club League took place on Wednesday 08 August with the final time trial of the league. Those with any real ambition on winning or getting a placing in the overall league table were under pressure to perform and gain some points to add to their tally.
There were some first time appearances too with Ruaidhri Devitt making his debut this year and putting in a time of 24.33. The Galtee Wheelers brought the U16 Enda McKenna who impressed with a time of 29.54 while Liam Corcoran in his first ever time trial had a time of 28.37.
There were some impressive performances and most of those fighting it out at the top managed to gain points again. The big winner on the night was Sean Dillon who, already sitting on top of the table, managed to take points. Although Sean’s points for the night will not be good enough to add to his tally due to it being the least high score of this time trails, he still managed to take points thereby keeping others out of the scoring. Jimmy Beston was also another big winner on the night by taking maximum points and shooting himself up into second place on the league table. On the other hand the ladies seem to be amongst those that lost out. Nora Cunningham failed to score and so has lost ground on her rivals. Mary Ryan scored 3 points and so cannot be too disappointed, however lost ground on Sean and allowed Jimmy to take second place.
The final stage sign on details, route and preview of the last stage will be added to the website over the weekend.
The rain held off (almost) for Stage 6 of the Tipperary Wheelers club league, which took place on Wednesday 01 August with the third race in the series taking riders from Bansha, left off the Cahir roundabout and back around the New Inn road roundabout back to Bansha.
The handicaps worked out to be very close and although the majority of the first batch of riders was Cat 3’s, the Cat 2 riders were only 2 seconds behind on the line. The Cat 1 riders were a further 35 seconds back, which made for some exciting racing. Jimmy Vinokourov Beston took the stage win from Richie English (apparently Richie looked over his left shoulder coming in the finish line and Jimmy went down the right), who was followed by another good performance from Rob Walsh and these three riders shared the bonus points between them.
The top 3 positions remain the same. Sean Dillon still holds first place while Nora Cunningham and Rob Walsh sit in second and third respectively. Stage 7 is the last chance for riders to gain some points on the time trial with the fourth and final TT of the league. With constant improvements by the Cat 3 and 4 groups can they keep the momentum going or will the Cat 2 and Cat 1 riders gain some points, potentially causing a shake up in the overall table?
The Stage 7 time trial sign on will take place on Wednesday 08 August at 7.00pm with the first riders off at 7.15pm. Please note the new times and please make every effort to be on time as everybody needs to get back to town before dark.
On Friday night August 10th the club holds its second summer night rider tour. Last year was a great success, 23 riders took to the highways and byways of the 50k leisure spin. The very popular route which remains the same as last year, will leave the Sports complex at 6.30pm sharp taking in Dundrum, Annacarty, Cappawhite, and stopping off just after the halfway point in Doon at the local bar for tea and sandwiches, to replenish the lost carbs! After refreshments we will continue up to cluggan cross, into Oola, Monard and return to the complex again safe and sound. This event and I stress is not a race, it’s to get as many members and non members and for those with an interest in cycling to come along for the crack, the exercise and the banter. The avg pace last year was between 17-20kph. We should be back to the complex well before dark but if you have a light or a high vis jacket bring them along just to be on the safe side.
If you feel up to it why not come along, all you need is a road worthy bike and helmets are compulsory, no helmet no tour. Entry fee is €10 per person and will be collected at 6.15pm.
So get out that bike, oil that chain, and get yourself to the complex on the Fri10th.
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