Donegal RAS

Monday, June 8, 2015
Ballymena Road Club riders travelled to Ardara for the Ras Donegal last weekend.
The racing team and backup crew totalled ten people who travelled in two vehicles.
Those travelling were Hall Booth (Team Manager), Derwood Ritchie - driver / support car, Caolan Stuart - mechanic / photographer and riders Eileen Burns, Jason Burns, Curtis Gilmore (temporary move to BRC) Matthew Brennan, Karlo Taylor and Nigel Kernohan.

The club’s assistant race secretary Nigel Kernohan said "There were high winds on Friday evening and all day on Saturday with 50MPH gusts also with some showers on Saturday morning.

On Friday evening, Matthew Brennan broke a gear cable after a few miles and had to retire. Also I got caught behind a crash and then I was blown off the bike with the gusty side winds so I retired as well. Jason and Eileen each had mechanical problems but both managed to get going again and finish.

The time trial went OK except Eileen had problems with gears and had to stop twice so she lost a few minutes. 

All riders managed to get round stage 3 without too much difficulty. Curtis attacked early on Saturday, he is an excellent young rider. He lost some time later in the race as he said his energy was sapped.

Jason and Karlo are doing well despite some tough climbs and Eileen would have been a better position if she had not had the trouble on the TT.

Curtis won the first two KOH climbs and was second on climb three on Sunday’s final stage. He finished third overall in the KOH contest and was 89th overall at 26 minutes 36 seconds. Karl was 103rd at 37.56. Eileen Burns was 112th overall and fourth lady while Jason Burns also completed the tour in 117th place at 63minutes 53 seconds.

The Danish junior Mikkel F Honore rode superbly for Errigal CC and won the yellow jersey by 67 seconds from Simon Tuomey (Cork) with Derek Cunningham (Bike workx) third at 2 minutes 43 seconds.