Last Saturday at the Man 0' War, Stephen Halpin from Swords CC, who has just returned from Belguim where he has been racing and training with the Bioagrico team, just missed out on a victory in the Harry Reynolds Memorial race, promoted by Balbriggan cycling club.

Going out on the final 7.2k lap of the Killalane circuit, Halpin and 18-year old Philip Lavery from the Winning Solutions team in Dublin broke clear of the main field and held a 23-second lead over a chasing group of 10 riders, with the huge main bunch a further 10-seconds back. On the finishing straight for the final time, Halpin and Lavery were locked in combat, with victory eventually going to Lavery, now described as the new-kid-on-the-block. The next best placed local rider in the huge field of 120 riders was Colin Robinson from Stamullen M Donnelly club, finishing in 9th place.

This was a

great performance by Halpin who will now compete on the Irish Under 23 team in the 4-day International Ras Mumhan in Killorglin, Co. Kerry over the Easter weekend, before returning to his base in Belgium.

The action continued on Sunday when the busy Balbriggan cycling club held their 2nd promotion of the weekend with the Ben McKenna and Jim 'Jazzer' Wherity Memorial races, with the Senior 1-2 riders competing for the Ben McKenna cup, which was held over a distance of 68 mile. The race was contested over a very tough circuit, taking in Kitchenstown, Ballyboughal, Colecot, Balough, Walshestown, Balrickard before finishing at Ring Commons.

At the end of the first of 4laps, almost all of the 109 starters were still together. On the third ascent of Kitchestown, an 11-man break went clear and built up a lead of 2-minutes. Crossing the line for the final OEbell‚ lap, the group had been whittled down to 7 leaders and the deficit was cut to 1 minute and 40 seconds. By the time the riders reached Ballyboughal, the gap has been closed to just 1 minute by a chasing group of 10 riders.

However, the 7 leaders managed to stay out clear, although with every passing kilometre, their lead was diminishing fast.

With 3k to go, David McCann from Belfast, a former double All-Ireland champion and an All-Ireland TT champion, jumped clear of his comrades and went solo in search of glory which paid off handsomely. At the finish line, McCann had 7-seconds to spare over Martyn Irvine from the Curran Racing Team in Belfast. The best placed local rider in this tough event was Craig Sweetman from Stamullen M Donnelly club finishing in 10th place, 25seconds behind the winner.

The Wherity Memorial Cup for Senior 2 riders and held in conjunction with the Senior 1 race, was won by Fiachra 0‚Mhuire from the Usher Irish Road Club in Dublin. Best placed local rider was Alan Clogher from the Stamullen club, finishing in 4th place.

In the Combined Race for Veterans and Juniors, Conor Campbell from the Drogheda Wheelers CC took the 1st Junior award.

Elsewhere over the weekend, Javan Nulty from the Stamullen club travelled the long journey to Fermoy in Co. Cork on Sunday to compete in what was a very important race for the under 16 riders in the country, with it being the 2nd race in a series of selection races for the Youth Olympics, which will take place later in the year.

In the closing stages of this event, Javan stormed to victory, in an all-out effort to stamp his name on an Irish jersey in the not-too-distant future.

In 2nd place was another Meath rider, David Boyd from Clonard cycling club. David also finished 2nd in the first selection race of the series in Bohermeen just one week ago.

This great performance by these young cyclists must put them into serious contention for a place on the Irish Youth Olympic team. Nevertheless, there are 3 more selection races coming up and all the local clubs wish these young ambitious riders the very best of luck in this prestigious competition.

Next weekend sees the first of the major 3-day stage races, with the International Ras Mumhan 4-day race getting underway in Killorglin, Co. Kerry on Friday afternoon.

The Tour of the North 4-day event will have a 6 o‚clock start at Stormont Buildings, near Belfast on Friday.

Then, on Saturday morning the Gorey 3-day gets off on the 1st stage which is a 100k race from Tallaght in Dublin to Gorey in Wexford. This race continues in Gorey for stage 2 and 3 before returning to Dublin on stage 4 on Monday. All of the local clubs will be represented in this event.

Drogheda Wheelers cyclist, Conor Campbell will be a member of the Irish Junior (U.18) team in this weekends event and he will be accompanied by Sean Doona from Killorglin CC, Eamonn Maher from Carrick-on-Suir CC and Sean McNamara from Clonmel CC

Down in Kerry, 3 local cyclists will be participating in Ras Mumhan as members of the Irish Under 23 team, Ciaran Cassidy and Tim 0‚Regan both from the Dunboyne Engraveit.ie club, Stephen Halpin from Swords CC. The other members of the team are Aaron Buggle from South Dublin CC and Urban Monks from Eurocycles CC.