Red Hand Trophy - Result
Saturday’s Blair International Transport Red Hand Trophy 65 miles road race at Broughshane proved to be another successful promotion for the Ballymena Road Club – Chain Reaction Cycles – organising team.
A maximum field of 80 riders assembled at the Michelin Athletic Club, on the Woodside road, for the start of the event and they were neutralised out to Broughshane and the official start on the Knockan road.
Fraser Duncan (Eurocycles) put in the first attack of the day and he held a 20 seconds lead at Rathkenny. Duncan was reeled in just before Clough and immediately his team mate Adam Armstrong attacked.
Armstrong gradually built up a small lead which hovered between 15 and 20 seconds and, even though he was eventually joined by three others – Leo McAllister (Chain Reaction Cycles), John Madden and Simon Williams (both Curran Racing) on the descent of Glenshesk towards Ballycastle, with 21 miles covered, it was Armstrong who always looked the strongest.
Madden overshot the right hand corner at Ballycastle, mounted the kerb and lost his place in the front quartet, and when Leo McAllister dismounted to check what he thought was a mechanical problem he too lost his place.
These two were quickly swept up by the fast moving chasing group before the race reached Ballyvoy at which point the two leaders had an advantage of 67 seconds.
In the meantime Armstrong was doing the majority of the work at the front with Williams sharing the pace making whenever he could. The front pair gradually increased their advantage over the Ballypatrick forest climb (90 seconds ahead) and on through Cushendall, Waterfoot (1 minute 55 seconds lead with 45 miles covered) and Carnlough (2 minutes 10 seconds lead). They ascended Glencloy at a pace rarely below 20mph and once over the top rode in through the Braid at speeds between 35 and 40 mph. Armstrong made his winning move just as he emerged from under the trees with less than half a mile to go and Williams didn’t respond at all. This left Armstrong a clear winner by 7 seconds from Williams after 2 hours 28 minutes 31 seconds. Conor McAllister (Chain Reaction) took third place at 2 minutes 31 seconds.
This was an impressive time by the winner especially when the race had to divert up the Tower road at Garron point. Armstrong was delighted to have finally won the Red Hand Trophy which was one of the few major classic races he hadn’t mastered.
Ballymena Road Club’s best finisher was Simon Taggart in tenth place.
Results (1) Adam Armstrong (Eurocycles) 2 hours 28 minutes 31 seconds (2) Simon Williams (Curran) at 7 seconds (3) Conor McAllister (Chain Reaction) at 2.31 (4) Thomas Martin (Eurocycles) (5) Ryan Sherlock (Cycleways) all at 2.31 (6) Peter Williams (Curran) at 2.43 (7) Gary Jeffers (East Tyrone) (first A3) (8) Gary Cranston (East Antrim) (9) Jason Henry (Unattached) (10) Simon Taggart (Ballymena RC Chain Reaction Cycles) (11) Marc Potts (Cycling Ulster) (first A2) (12) Mark Buchanan (North Pole) all same time at 2 minutes 43 seconds.
Other BRC (21) Chris Beattie at 3 minutes 54 seconds (55) Ryan Currie
Many thanks to race organiser Hugh McCullough who brought together a great team of helpers who all did a very professional job. The PSNI motor cycle team, as usual, made the event happen and gave the riders a reasonably safe environment to race in. Many thanks too goes to the team of ladies who provided the post-race refreshments and last but certainly no means least to Alan Blair for his generous sponsorship backing.
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