Bonar cup win for veteran Tommy

Sunday, May 24, 2015
Ballymena Road Club – Chain Reaction Cycles – veteran cyclist Tommy Wilson, from Greenvale in Antrim, followed up his success on the Caddy circuit seven days earlier by winning the A. Bonar cup road race at Broughshane last Wednesday evening.
There was a field of 36 for the race, which is part of the Northstone sponsored club race programme, and they were set off in four groups at the start. They then faced five laps of the tough, hilly, Lisnamurrican circuit.
There were four riders in the front "limit” group and they had a 4 minutes starting advantage over group two.
One of the front riders was Laura Blair who has been making rapid progress this season.
Laura gives her view of the race. "I set off in the first group which included myself, Ronnie Grant, (who was making a comeback just two days before his 66th birthday) Stephen Smyth and Melanie Archibald (it was Melanie’s first race) and we had a 4 minute head start on the second group.”
"We lost Stephen and Melanie on the first hill and so it was down to just Ronnie and me. We then worked together to try and keep ahead of the groups for as long as we could. Ronnie dragged me up the hills and I did my turn on the flat! To be honest I thought they would have caught us sooner but we had quite a head start and worked well together to go as fast as we could.
The groups all caught us at the top of the hill on the fourth lap and we managed to jump on in the flat section.”
"We were left behind at the top of the hill on the final lap and it was Ronnie and me again and we worked hard to finish just behind the main bunch.
Melanie Archibald finished the race, not long after the main bunch, and hats off to her as that is definitely a tough course for your debut race.” Added Laura.

Race winner Tommy Wilson said "We had another big turnout of club riders for the race. Aaron Swan (Nicolas Roche Performance Team) and I got across to the middle group just as they were getting to the front of the race. We then pressed on and we got away on the last lap. Aaron gave me the slip just before the finish and he held on to the line.”    

Result of A. Bonar cup 25 miles handicapped road race 20/5/2015

1 Aaron Swan (NRPT) 1 hour 00 minutes 45 seconds 
2 Tommy Wilson 
3 Matthew Brennan 
4 Ryan Bankhead @10secs  
5 Connor Young 
6 Simon Taggart 
7 Richard Reid 
8 Stephen Little 
9 Adam Torrie 
10 Dale Bonnar 
11 Gary Reid 
12 Declan Butler (Michelin) 
13 Mark Wright 
14 Alan Blair 
15 Martin Ruddy 
16 Adrian Archibald 
17 John Shaw 
18 Gary McCappin ( Muckamore Centurions) 
19 Colin Scullion 
20 Eileen Burns 
21 Jon Hilditch 
22 John Stevenson (Old Bleach) 
23 Jason Burns 
24 Laura Blair 
25 Ronnie Grant 
26 Stephen Smyth 
27 Daryl Sempey 
28 Melanie Archibald. 
Eight riders failed to finish.

League
The Bonar Cup was the second round of the club’s road racing league series for the William Smyth cup. The league positions are 
(1) R Bankhead 18 points 
(2) Richard Reid 13 
(3) and (4) Tie Tommy Wilson and Gary Reid 10 points each 
(5) Matthew Brennan 9 
(6) Stephen Little 8 points.