Ryan Bankhead wins Interclub League.
Thursday night saw the final round of the 2012 inter club road racing league series with Bann Valley hosting the event on their Gortmacrane circuit at Kilrea.
Hall Booth, who has been the BRC team co-ordinator for the series gives his account of the race. "Thursday saw the sixth and final round of the interclub league. Going into the race Michael Kelly, from Carn Wheelers, held a slender one point advantage over Ballymena’s Chris Beattie with Ryan Bankhead a further point behind.
It was all to play for and a tactical plan was drawn up before the race which resulted in one of the best BRC team performances I've seen in years. The riders were set off in four groups covered by 4 minutes from front to back.
Scratch had to get up or the league was over. As a result some second group BRC riders opted to drop back into scratch and give Chris and Ryan their help.
The race was four laps of a 5.5 mile circuit, cut by a lap due to light constraints, which proved a wise decision by the organisers. At the end of lap one the deficit had been reduced by one minute with Connor Young and Ryan Currie driving hard on the front.
First group riders Peter and Steven Smyth as well as Richard Reid had a tumble halfway through lap two with Reid being taken to hospital for a laceration on his chin. The Smyth brothers had some cuts and bruises but were largely unscathed.
The BRC riders in scratch continued to drive on laps 2 and 3 and had caught the front group by lap 4.
Coming to the line the sprint was taken by Ryan Bankhead with Chris Beattie taking a superb second. Quinton McFall proved his strength in his comeback year to take 5th with promising junior Ryan Shaw 7th.
The remaining BRC riders finished in the bunch after having given their all. Ryan’s win ensured he won the league with Chris second. The BRC team also won the team contest in the league overall.
In what has been a sad week for Ballymena road club Billy would have been proud.” Added Hall.
Ryan Bankhead too was quick to acknowledge the help of his club mates. "We agreed before the start that we were doing this race for Billy. The club rode brilliantly. I just had a great ride round and I am delighted to have won. Billy really inspired everyone on the night. It would be great if we could ride like this all the time.” Added Ryan
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