For 17 weeks over the summer, Monday Nights @ Corkagh has been a fixture on the calendar. Started by Dave Mc 4 years ago, it has become a stepping stone for many into cycling and into racing. For others it has been a key part of their training programme.  For others is just a good laugh and a bit of exercise on a warm summers evening.

According to our slightly incomplete records we had 138 different cyclists over the summer.  26 different clubs were represented with a number of unattached as well.  Orwell was the best represented club as you would expect from hosting it every week and having one of the larger youth sections around.

Each evening the plan would be to have 3 events per age group , with most weeks having a TT and a handicap race at their core.  We also had Italian Pursuit with up to 18 members on each team, Elimination, Win & Out and skill contests like Limbo, Slow Bicycle race and Sumo among others.

As various members found out when they tried their hands at it, handicapping is not an easy skill and Dave Mc remains the undisputed master.

Many parents gave freely of their time to help out with Ivan O’Brien and Martyn Holmes amongst the most called upon. I think it is fair to say that no-one said no when asked. Under 16 Andrew Ryan , whose training programme invariably had him on a rest day after racing competitively on Sundays, was a great source of help over the season and in particular over the last few weeks when Dave was off PBP’ing. He graduated from sign-on duties to TT starter to handicapping the senior races in double quick time.

On the final night we ran the TT , a quick 3 lap and a sort of win and out. There was a prize for everybody , all donated by parents coming along and some friendly bike shops, Joe Dalys in Dundrum and Infinity cycles in Athy.

Final Podiums were U10/8/6 :  Roisin Twomey , Hector Leahy & Aran O’ Donnell and in the Seniors – It was Ryan Fox (picking up his 12th W of the season) Killian O’Brien and Olga Buckina

Then time to acknowledge some of the youths who have excelled over the summer.  We were delighted to have club legend Noel O’Neill to present the awards. Apart from being a class racer – national road race champion among other things – Noel has always been interested in training youths and devoted large parts of his post racing career to youths cycling. Among his proteges are Stephen Roche and Damian Long – while one of them may have won the Triple Crown the other is still winning races in the vets.

Noel spoke about how he continues to watch the youths and has been very impressed with the current team of young boys and girls . In his opinion they compare very favourably with any group he has seen coming through . Earlier on he had a special word with Ryan whose National Champion results he had taken note of.

On to the silverware , first up was Aidan O’Callaghan – winner of the Most Improved Cyclist of the Year

In the U8’s Daria Murphy was the standout competitor and won despite suffering a broken leg 3 weeks ago. We were delighted she came along, with her sister Alexa, to get her prize.

U10’s winner was an ever present over the summer and went home with money in her pocket most week. Fittingly Roisin Twomey won the final race of the season earlier.

In the 12’s there was a good battle before Davis Quinn emerged at the top of the table

In the 14’s Killian O’Brien had a remarkable 26 placings (1st to 5th) over the summer and had a good gap at the end.

Finally, the prize for Cyclist of the Summer . This is the Noel O’Neill Perpetual Youths Trophy. It was originally won by Noel and donated by him to the club.  The prize is awarded based on the Monday Night Racing series and consideration is given to a whole range of factors over and above results . The winner this year, was a regular attender, consistently placed well, always had a positive attitude, was helpful to the younger riders, respectful to those older riders and mostly listened to Dave, Andrew and myself when we asked him to do something. Despite plenty of strong competition in our opinion the rider who most epitomises the qualities that we feel Noel has always looked for in youth riders is Killian O’Brien. 

Thanks to everyone who helped make the series a success this year. See you on Monday April 27^th , 2020.