Following in the wheelruts of several Orwell riders before him, Mark Holland notched up his maiden open win in Dunsany at the weekend! Along with 3rd placed Paul Perry, a great team effort paid off for the club. Diarmuid Collins also collected an envelope at the Shay Elliot on Sunday, full details inside!
The Dunsany GP is in its fourth year now, and remarkably an Orwell rider has won every edition of the A4 race! Beginning with Eric Downey in 2012 (his first ever open race), followed by David Halpin in 2013 and Bernard English in 2014. 2015's winner Mark Holland has prepared a race report for us....
"The sun came out thankfully on Saturday morning to make for very good race conditions especially after miserable cold wet Friday. Orwell turned up in force with 10 riders, Ken O’Neill, Jules Cantwell, Daragh Boyd, Kilian Doyle, Paul Perry, Freddie Stevens, Shane Toman, Jeffrey Hoare, Scott Gilchrist and Mark Holland. The Orwell group did a quick lap of the race's Green Sheds circuit to warm up and try to locate good attack locations to break.
"The big Orwell contingent made their presence known from the start, putting in attack after attack controlling the pace of the race. On a number of occasions Orwell launched attacks and then two or three other Orwell member would stick on the front of the peloton and slow the pace down. Stevens and Toman in their first open race impressively put in a couple of good attacks. O’Neill put in no less than four big attacks, and as Boyd remarked, he decided to be a bit sociable on the day and came back to peloton for the odd chat between attacks. Boyd, Doyle, Perry, Hoare and Gilchrist all put in a number of strong digs and did great work for the team to soften up the competition. A number of riders in the peloton from other clubs were overheard remarking that Orwell were controlling the race by consistently firing riders up the road.
"On the third and final lap with about 5km to go O’Neill put in a final strong attack helped out by Holland. Unfortunately they were caught with about 3km to go and the peloton reformed and riders started to jostle for places. Doyle put in an effort with about 800m to go but was pulled back. Then it was the turn of Cantwell with about 500m to go just before the 90 degree angle right turn off the circuit leading to the uphill 200m stretch to the finish by the church. Cantwell was first into the corner with a 20m gap followed by Holland and a speeding peloton close behind them.
"The carrot of Cantwell was enough to bait the bunch into an all-out sprint, with Holland opening up and overtaking him to cross the line in 1st place for the win! Perry placed himself very well coming into the last corner holding his spot in a strong surge and earning a very impressive 3rd place. Stevens only narrowly missed out on 8th place in the sprint and just missed picking up a point in his first race.
"It was a very successful day out for Orwell picking up two placings including the win and controlling the race. The A4 Dunsany GP race has been won by Orwell members for the last 4 years, let’s make it 5 in a row!"
The team spirit of the A4 riders has been remarked upon often, and has paid dividends so far this season. With Dave Mc playing the strategic mastermind behind the scenes, the A4 band of brothers have been very successful at converting his advice into results, and we look forward to reporting on more results in the near future!
L-R: Daragh Boyd (front), Mark Holland, Jeffrey Hoare, Paul Perry, Jules Cantwell, Ken O’Neill, Freddie Stevens, Kilian Doyle (front) and Shane Toman.
Holland being awarded his prize
The next day several Orwells headed to Bray Wheelers' clubhouse for the Shay Elliot Memorial and the SHA3 races. With it being a big final test before the Rás, it was great to see a turnout from the likes of Dick O'Brien, Tom Blennerhassett, Brian McArdle, Odhrán Connors, Manuel Fontan and Diarmuid Collins in the main event. With support provided by Pat O'Brien and Fionn Sheridan, it was a dry run of sorts for la grande boucle next week. The SHA3 was also well attended, including Michelle Geoghegan, Ronan Grimes, Brian McNally, Chris Mollaghan and Conor Murnane.
While former Orwell Aideen Keenan took the women's prize in the A3 race for DID Electrical, the only other club member to feature on the day was Collins, who nabbed himself an unplaced envelope with a late burst for the line. He tells us:
"It was a tough, fast day on the bike. After following a few attacks, two groups eventually got away, one with Brian in it. That allowed me to sit in at the front of the chase bunch until the bottom of the Shay Elliot. I lost a few hundred meters on the ascent but made it back onto a bunch on the descent.
"Then with about 8km to go, I escaped the chase with one other A2 rider. We stayed away from the bunch to the finish to take an unplaced prize. Very happy with the race, especially considering how good I felt throughout the day."
Already man of the Rás, Collins won't be rolling out of Dunboyne next Sunday, but best of luck to the Orwell team that will!
Dunsany GP, Dunsany (9/5/2015)
A4 Race
1 Mark Holland (Orwell Wheelers)
2 George Devin Drogheda Wheelers)
3 Paul Perry (Orwell Wheelers)
4 Declan Keating (Skane Wheelers)
5 Tony Pryce (Sheelin Flyers)
6 Karl Powderly (Tuam)
7 Finbar Mc Gurren (Swords)
8 Emmet Tuite (Kilcullen)
Shay Elliot Memorial, Bray (10/5/2015)
Unplaced A2s
3 Diarmuid Collins (Orwell Wheelers)
