Stuart Cox, Richie Lenehan and Brendan Kiernan at the Moynalty GP.

Focus now turns to the Mullingar GP

Lakeside Wheelers notes

With the Tour of the Lakes and the National TT Championships done and dusted, event organisers at Lakeside Wheelers are now totally focused on the Mullingar GP and thoughts turn to bringing another fantastic day’s racing to Multyfarnham.

Once again the race features on Cycling Ireland’s premier race league series so it’s expected that the cream of the crop of Ireland’s domestic racing cyclists will take to the start line on August 3rd. Due to the race coming on a Bank Holiday weekend and also clashing with Cemetery Sunday devotions in Mullingar, it is expected that it will be an extremely busy weekend.

This year’s Mullingar GP which is supported by Westmeath Co. Council will be the first held under the new Cycling Ireland categorisation system. This sees the amalgamation of A1 and A2 riders scrapped in favour of separate races. Under the new system there are three new categories, C1, C2 and C3 with Ladies remaining as normal.

Richie O'Donoghue and club chairman Pearse Murphy taking a break at the Ring of Kerry cycle.

The C1 grouping is made up of all existing A1 riders plus the upper end of the A2’s. The C2 grouping contains the remaining A2 riders plus the upper end of the A3’s while the C3 category is made up of the remaining A3’s plus all A4’s. The rationale behind these changes is to try and increase numbers racing, make the pelotons fairer and with the addition of timing chips, to give riders better feedback on results.

As usual, there will be lots of local interest with club members in all races except for the Ladies so there will be prizes for the first Lakeside Wheelers rider home in the C2 and C3 events. The club just has one C1, Padraig Moran who will be home from his base in Girona in Spain for the race which will see him race on his local roads once again.

Race organisers are conscious of the above mentioned events which clash with this year’s race so a decision has been made to start racing at 10am which is an hour earlier than normal. As with all events, the assistance of club members is vital to ensure the successful and safe running of the GP so if you are free, please make yourself available to help out. Chief Marshall, Jack Nugent will be making contact over the next fortnight so please respond ASAP and give the organisers a chance to plan the day.

Moynalty GP

The club was represented in the recent staging of the Moynalty GP by Stuart Cox, Richie Lenehan and Brendan Kiernan. On what was an extremely difficult day for bike racing due to the heat. The three lads competed and all managed to complete the race but just outside of the podium places.

Midland League

The second of the two rounds of the MiL which Lakeside Wheelers is responsible for was staged last Thursday evening in Dalystown in very wet conditions. With it being our own race it meant that many of the our racers who normally race were on marshalling duty which is the rule of the league and it needs to be that way to ensure the survival of the MiL.

On the night Richie Lenehan was best local rider in the A race finishing 4th with Fergal Mccabe in 6th. In the B race Peter Rimmer got 4th with Paul Cronin continuing his good run coming home 5th. Thanks to all who helped out over the two Lakeside Wheelers legs this year especially to Peter Rimmer and Steve Franzoni for organising these races.

Sportives

This is prime sportive season with something for everyone every single weekend these days. A large contingent from the club went to the Ring of Kerry Charity Cycle recently and another group did the Ring of Clare last Saturday.

Other news

As the summer rolls on there are several other schemes and initiaves ongoing driven by members who continue to volunteer their services on behalf of the club. The Women on Wheels series has drawn to a close recently and it proved to be a very successful series. Run in conjunction with Westmeath County Council, the Women on Wheels saw several ladies take to two wheels to experience group cycling for the first time.

The Sprocket Rocket programme is still going every Monday in Belvedere and last weekend a group of Rocket mentors put in a very solid day’s work stripping and clearing new trails for the kids to explore over the final few weeks.