By Dick O'Brien

Newcomer Eric Downey stole the limelight by taking a win in his very first road race at last night's club league in Brittas.

With 143 riders signing on, the race was split into two separate handicap races, with scratch and semi-scratch contesting the first race and limit and semi-limit squaring off in the second.

Limit stayed away by a small margin in the second race with Downey launch a strong attack near the end to see him take the victory by a margin of more than 100 metres. He was followed by clubmate John Twomey, who'd also opened up a wide margin on the chasing bunch.

There was a close contest for the remaining places, with Orwell's Ronan Foley taking third, Jamie Busher coming in fourth, Paul O'Brien taking sixth and John Paul Corcoran nabbing seventh. Foley, Busher and Corcoran are, like Downey, all newcomers to the league.

Youth rider Rachel Kaye Mellor was very unlucky not to pick up a placing, being pipped to the line for eighth by the Irish Road Club's Simon Kenny.

In the first race of the night, Orwell's Pat O'Brien was the club's top performer, taking second place behind IRC's Shane Baker, who was coming to the race fresh from winning the KOM jersey at the Gorey 3 Day.

Eddie Lynch also got up in the sprint for the line, taking fourth place, while Dylan Rafter arrived home in seventh.

There was lots of attacking on the run in, with Orwell's Diarmuid Collins, Aidan Collins and St Tiernans' Alan Cody looking most likely to take it, but in the end a group of about 15 were left for the gallop with Baker just pipping O'Brien, and a decent gap to the rest.

Race 1: (Semi-scratch chased by Scratch)

1) Shane Baker, Usher;

2) Pat O'Brien, Orwell;

3) John Caffrey, Stagg;

4) Eddie Lynch, Orwell;

5) Sean Bracken, Usher;

6) Stephen Byrne, Usher;

7) Dylan Rafter, Orwell;

8) Barry Sheridan, Stagg.

Race 2: (Limit chased by Semi-limit)

1) Eric Downey, Orwell;

2) John Twomey, Orwell;

3) Ronan Foley, Orwell;

4) Jamie Busher, Orwell;

5) Tim Hennessey, UCD;

6) Paul O'Brien, Orwell;

7) John Paul Corcoran, Orwell;

8) Simon Kenny, Usher.