Tom Blennerhassett finished top Orwell with a fine fifth place finish in the inter club league season opener at Blackbull on Sunday.
Blennerhasset's best league result on the first anniversary of his racing debut has earned him the 'offer' of a fast track to the scratch group when the league resumes in April.
In the meantime the second year racer, who had claimed on the final winter training spin last week that he had little confidence in a sprint, can reflect on a nicely timed final surge that took him past established Orwell gallopers Brian Ahern and Stephen McNally.
Lucan's Brendan Whelan led the charge for the line in front of approximately 40 riders from the original 110 rider entry that kicked the season off in fine style with two hard fought laps of the Green Sheds circuit near Dunshaughlin.
The Orwell promotion was expertly handled by chief commissaire John Marron who assembled a full complement of marshals and an impressive fleet of lead cars for the four groups.
As the riders made their first tentative pedal strokes up the Trim Road, a flurry of icy rain threatened to cool their ardour but the sun soon re-emerged as the riders settled down to the twin tasks of flight and pursuit.
The first union occurred when Semi Scratch caught Semi Limit on Warrenstown shortly before the end of lap one.
The next junction was made shortly afterwards when Scratch made contact just seconds before the last seven Limit riders were absorbed at the end of the Dunshaughlin Bypass.
The scene was set for a mass dash for the line but not before some hectic racing further thinned out the lead group as the top scratch and semi scratch riders made their presence felt.
Whelan's fabled finishing kick remains a devastating weapon but Blennerhassett's form at the end of a winter interrupted by illness caught the eye of the handicapper and suggests the Blanchardstown-based rider is set for a strong sophomore season of racing.
Meanwhile Orwell recruit Eilis Connery showed her undoubted class in her first club racce by comfortably finishing first woman, the world duathlon championship medallist coping admirably with the pace of the large group.
Interclub League Round One
Black Bull 27th February
1, Brendan Whelan (Lucan CRC);
2, Eugene Murtagh (Lucan CRC);
3, Paul Dolan (Irish Road Club);
4, John Priest (Lucan CRC);
5, Tom Blennerhassett (Orwell Wheelers);
6, Brian Ahern (Orwell Wheelers);
7, Stephen McNally (Orwell Wheelers);
8, Jimmy Stagg (Lucan CRC).
