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Batterstown St Patrick’s Day GP
March 17, 2004
Veteran Davis takes St Patrick's Day Batterstown GP
By Shane Stokes
Having successfully fended off the chase of the riders behind, Usher IRC rider Hughie Davis narrowly outsprinted Mick Nutly (Stamullen M. Donnelly), Sé Weston (All Systems Dublin Wheelers) and his own team-mate Dave Woods to win today’s Batterstown GP in Meath, Ireland. The quartet reached the finish of the 40.5 mile race with a narrow advantage over the rest of the field, with junior Mark Nestor (Shannonside) and Sean Bracken (Usher IRC) finishing less than half a minute down, and the rest of the riders in close pursuit.
‘The four of us went away at the start of the second lap and just rode hard together from there’, said a happy Davis afterwards. ‘If we started jumping around on a day like today we would have been caught, so we worked well together. I didn’t actually feel great towards the end as my legs were cramping up, but with that headwind up the finishing straight it was a case of survival of the fittest in the gallop. It was very close between me and Mick Nulty but I had enough.’
‘I got quite close to the four up front towards the end’, said the fast-finishing junior Mark Nestor. ‘Myself and Sean Bracken got to with a few seconds of them, but with two of his team-mates up there he didn’t want to ride. It’s a pity as we could have got across.’
A massive field of 174 turned out for the men’s handicap event, which took place over three laps of the mainly flat 13.5 mile Mullagh circuit. Four veteran riders got a four minute start over the large veteran and junior bunch, with the senior 3 chasers, the senior 2 riders and the senior 1 group all separated by three minutes each. With up to 13 minutes conceded by the scratch group it looked like they had a tough task at hand and so it proved; the reformed junior and veteran bunch rode well together to extend their lead over the senior 3 riders by one additional minute after the first lap, with the senior 2 chasers at five and a half minutes and the senior 1 riders nearly two minutes further back.
By the end of the second lap the four man break of Davis, Nulty, Weston and Woods were thirty seconds clear of a small number of chasers, which included the evergreen Sean Lally (McNally Swords), Ollie McQuaid (Emerald) and Jim Cassidy (First Legal), and a further ten seconds up on the rest of the juniors and vets. The now-amalgamated senior 2 and 3 bunches were at three minutes and fifteen seconds, while the senior 1 riders had reduced their overall deficit to four minutes. However with just one lap left to race it was looking good for the front four, and in the sprint to the line Davis had enough left to take that narrow verdict from Nulty, with Weston and Woods next home. Nestor and Bracken followed soon after to complete the top six.
DHL Wallcycles Eurotrek rider Simon Whelan was first of the senior 1 riders and so took the prize for the fastest time on the day, while Dermot Healy (Les Jeunes) and Stephen Byrne (Navan) were best of the senior 2 and senior 3 categories. Sean Lally took seventh on the day and took home the award for first unplaced veteran; Ciaran Cassidy (Usher IRC) got the prize for unplaced junior.
Results
1 Hughie Davis (Usher IRC) 1.37.06 2 Mick Nulty (Stamullen M. Donnelly) 3 Sé Weston (All Systems Dublin Wheelers) 4 Dave Woods (Usher Irish Road Club) 5 Mark Nestor (Shannonside) 0.28 6 Sean Bracken (Usher IRC) 0.29 Unplaced prizes First unplaced veteran: Sean Lally (Mc Nally Swords CC) First junior: Ciaran Cassidy (Usher Irish Road Club) Senior 2: Dermot Healy (Les Jeunes CC) Senior C: Stephen Byrne (Avonmore Navan Road Club) Fastest Time: Simon Whelan (DHL Wall Cycles Eurotrek) 1.29.58
Local results 2004
