Irish National Road Championships - CN

Navan, June 28-30, 2002

Main page Results Next day

Day 1 - June 28: Individual Time Trials

McCann, Gill Storm to TT Gold

By Shane Stokes, Irishcycling.com

Any lingering question marks over the fitness of David McCann were dispelled after a storming display saw him defend his National Time Trial Championship crown in Navan. The Volksbank Ideal professional may have missed much of the early season through illness and injury but he nevertheless scorched to a three minute winning margin over his nearest competitor, a huge difference on a 43 kilometre course.

McCann covered the distance in 56 minutes and 32 seconds, with US-based professional David O'Loughlin securing silver in a time of 59 minutes and 33 seconds. Dublin Wheelers rider Andrew Donnellan continued his strong showing this year with a fine ride, taking the bronze medal in 1 hour and 28 seconds. Philip Cassidy (Cycleways Lee Strand), Paul Healion (Usher IRC) and Tom Hughes (Stamullen M. Donnelly) completed the top six placings.

McCann’s showing is the perfect response to chief rival Ciarán Power’s victory on Thursday night in the Paddy Flanagan Memorial in Kildare, with the two favourites now going into Sunday’s road race championships in Stamullen with a win each to their credit this week.

There was a psychological boost too for women’s road race champion Geraldine Gill (VC Quintin), who showed she is well on course to take a record fourth win on Sunday when she dominated the women’s event. Gill recorded a time of 33 minutes, 42 seconds for the 23 kilometre test and was almost three and a half minutes clear of Louise Moriarty (Dublin Skip) and four minutes ahead of bronze medallist Sheila Rafferty (Phoenix CC). Killorglin riders monopolised the medals in the junior event, with Theo Hardwick, Micheal Concannon and Barry Woods topping the table, while Sean Bracken (Usher IRC) beat Jim Cassidy (DPC First Legal) and Mark Birney (Maryland Wheelers) to land the veteran’s title.

Results

Men - 43 km

1 David McCann (Volksbank Ideal)          56.32
2 D. O’Louglin (Ofoto Lombardi Sports)     3.01
3 A. Donnellan (Dublin Wheelers)           3.56
4 P. Cassidy (Cycleways Lee Strand)        4.21
5 P. Healion (Usher IRC)                   5.26
6 T. Hughes (Stamullen M. Donnelly)        6.09

Women - 23 km

1 Geraldine Gill (VC Quintin)             33.42
2 L. Moriarty (Dublin Skip)                3.23
3 S. Rafferty (Phoenix CC)                 3.57

Junior - 23 km

1 Theo Hardwick (Killorglin CC)           31.10
2 M. Concannon (Killorglin CC)             0.33
3 B. Woods (Killorglin CC)                 1.05

Veterans - 43 km

1 Sean Bracken (Usher IRC)              1.05.18
2 J. Cassidy (DPC First Legal)             1.56
3 M. Birney (Maryland Wheelers)            2.10