Orwell Wheelers were one of only two Irish clubs to field a team at this year's Junior Tour of Ireland, based in Ennis from 9-14 July. Our team of four were:

• Patrick O'Sullivan, enjoying a fantastic year of racing and currently leading the National Series junior category
• Ilie Gabuja, fresh from a post-Leaving Certificate holiday bike packing the whole width of Spain, finishing just two days before the tour (great fun, but not perfect preparation for a hard stage race!)
• Daniel Roberts, getting back to racing after his Leaving Certificate
• Charlie Kelly, a guest from Westport Covey Wheelers, in his first year back on the bike after a three year hiatus

Team manager was Ivan O'Brien, with Luke Potter as mechanic.

There were two others from the Orwell family riding for Leinster

• David Harrington, in his first big race after the Leaving Cert
• Killian O'Brien, currently riding with Veleka Team in Italy, but always Orwell!

With the majority of the field coming from abroad and a well-chosen parcours, this is always a fantastic race.

Stage 1

I wish they would rename this short evening stage to "stage 2" or basically anything else to stop the juniors being QUITE so jumpy! There were a series of crashes, but one big one which impacted on us and split the field. Charlie has to run back to our car (and we had drawn 18, so that's a long run) to collect a replacement bike after his chain got snarled, while all our other riders were caught out too. Patrick, David and Killian managed to get back in (though David lost a bit of time after getting caught behind another crash close to the very high-speed finish) while Ilie and Daniel didn't manage. All home safely!

Stage 2: West Clare

Driving along the coast of South Clare and around the cliffs to Kilkee is special at any time, but in the sun and with a fast and furious bike race ahead of you, it's just amazing! A strong early break of 14 riders got away and competed for win, basically setting the GC up for the week. Killian spent a long time in a hard solo chase before conceding defeat. Another group got away in the middle before Patrick managed to ping off the main bunch and nab a few seconds and 29th place on the stage: it got us up a couple of places to car 16.

Stage 3: The Burren

This was tightly controlled by Hot Tubes, the American team with the Yellow Jersey, and no breaks managed to get away all day. The views were spectacular with the ancient dry stone walls and narrow roads lit up with glorious sunshine, so there were some consolations. 5km from the finish Michael Collins from Munster put in a speculative attack: Hot Tubes called "not in GC" and blocked the road! That gave him all the time he needed to stay ahead of a small group of 4 others who managed to ping away before the finish. In that group was Patrick, who sprinted to a fantastic third place on the day. An Irish win and an Orwell podium: not bad!

Stage 4: Cliffs of Moher

Lots of attacking but it was all shut down. The field split substantially on the short-but-steep Castle Hill, with riders working hard through the cars to get back in. Charlie was caught out, but managed to get back with about 10km to go and recovered enough to get up for a fantastic 14th in the bunch sprint.

Stage 5: East Clare

The toughest stage of the week, with 2 cat 2 and 4 cat 3 climbs over 112km. The finish in Gort was 15km after the last classified climb, giving a breakaway a real prospect. An early break of five riders lasted nearly 50km (and the first two climbs) before being reeled in. On the second cat 2 an all-Leinster break of Josh Calally (Lucan, riding for Team Ireland), Matthew Walls (Lucan, Team Leinster) and Killian took off. Their lead built to a minute, but any hope that Hot Tubes would let them go to soak up the bonus seconds at the finish were in vain. Their 40km break over the hardest terrain of the race was reeled in with 10km to go, and the eventual bunch sprint was won by Max Fitzgerald of Team Ireland: Patrick was 9th and David 18th. The finish line tape reared up under the pressure and could have caused a nasty incident, but some excellent bike handling saved the day.

Stage 6: Ennis Circuit Race

With only 74km and a relatively straightforward parcours, this looked set for a mass bunch sprint. The first half hour was raced at about 50kmh, and while many were blown out the back there were no breaks getting away. On the second lap of the circuit a group of seven, including three riders up on GC, built a 20 second lead. Killian, Josh and one other managed to bridge across on the main hill of the lap and the group worked well together to get the gap out to 50 seconds. There was no letup behind at all, and that gap held until the final lap. A slight lapse by the front group (they thought they had a bigger lead than they did) allowed a group of four containing one other GC rider to bridge. Josh attacked solo with about 8km to go. Killian saw glory and chased him, passing him and going into the lead with about 200m to go ... only for most of the rest of the break to sweep past before the finish, leaving him 12th on the day! Patrick, David and Charlie finished comfortably in the main bunch.

Summary ...

A podium and a top ten for Patrick, top twenties on stages for Charlie, David and Killian, smiles at the finish of seriously tough races from Ilie and Daniel and a great buzz for everyone. We were very lucky with the weather and (after the first stage) there were hardly any crashes, which is a real blessing.

But a race like that is not all about the results. The sheer buzz of being around all the junior riders and their teams in the hotel, the excellent race organisation from Alice Sheratt and Luke's unpublishable daily race summaries on the club red racing group all go to make this an amazing week for everyone!

Thanks so much to Orwell Wheelers and our sponsors Pinergy, Johnson & Perrot Fleet and Joe Daly Cycles for all their help in giving the kids these memories of a lifetime!