Congratulations to Swords rider Vanessa Fenton who took the win in a two up sprint for the line. Report by Laura Banfield. In the second of a two race series, Vanessa pipped Karen Robinson to the line in a very close sprint whilst Caroline Martinez showed her consistency by placing third for the second time.  Vanessa takes a close sprint With the racing season drawing to a close, it was great to see so many ladies out for the final race of the McNally Swords Ladies League. The race was run over 3 laps of a 10km circuit with 3 groups starting, a few of which were taking part in their first road race. Limit set off 2.5 minutes ahead of semi scratch who were off 1.5 minutes ahead of scratch.  Marian Hughes leads the limit group Towards the end of lap two the three groups came together when scratch riders Vanessa (Swords CC) and Karen Robinson (u/a) caught the leaders. The bunch was now made up of the 4 remaining semi scratch, the 2 scratch and 3 limit riders had who managed to grab onto their wheel. There was a sprint prize up for grabs at the end of lap 2 and the only two underage riders of the race Caoimhe Ivory (Bray) and Naoise Sheridan (Orwell) sprinted for the prime leaving the rest of the bunch standing. It was close, but 15 year old Bray Wheelers rider, Caoimhe, took the sprint. Seeing as the underage riders must ride on restricted gears, this is a very impressive result. The kick by the girls also split the bunch, so going into the final lap the group was down to Vanessa, Karen, Clodagh and Caroline. The girls worked well together until the 2 scatch riders upped the pace for the last 4km.  Caroline Martinez (left) and Clodagh Myers (right) in semi scratch It came down to a close sprint finish with Vanessa just grabbing first place ahead of Karen, while 30 seconds behind, Caroline attacked the remaining rider of the group Cloddagh, 400 meters from the finish line to take third. Showing determination, the rear split of the limit group with Maeve Hughes (Fingal Tri), Suzanne Barron (Fingal Tri) and Lyndsay Davis (u/a) worked hard to stay together for the first 2 laps of the race. They were then caught by Ciara Robinson (u/a) and Aoife Sheridan (Orwell) and stayed together until the final sprint for the line. McNally Swords would like to thank all the riders for supporting the two races, and all the marshals and drivers and ambulance for your help on both nights. We would also like to thank the sponsors of the prizes; High 5 (Derek Humphries) and Hazels food store. Finally, thank you to Brendan Culleton for the photography. Results 1. Vanessa Fenton - McNally Swords 2. Karen Robinson 3. Caroline Martinez - Orwell Wheelers 4. Clodagh Myers 5. Siobhan Moore - Fingal Tri 6. Marian Checkley 7. Martina Smith 8. Caoimhe Ivory - Bray Wheelers 9. Aoife Sheridan - Orwell Wheelers 10. Bernie McNally - McNally Swords Sprint Prime 1. Caoimhe Ivory – Bray Wheelers   Martina Smith  Karen Robinson   Siobhan Moore leads Marian Checkly  Bernie McNally  Aoife Sheridan |
|
|
|
      Injury Prevention Race Around Ireland Archive Website Club Kit |
Ladies >
Victorious Vanessaposted 24 Aug 2011 02:09 by Peter Doyle |