Alan Bingham is savouring winning the Newry Three Day after a daring raid up the road on yesterday’s final stage.
He got clear
twice on stage 3 and the second
attack was to prove the decisive one, ensuring he had enough time to lift the
yellow jersey from Chris Richardson’s shoulders.
At the end of the
115km stage starting and finishing in Bessbrook Bingham had an anxious wait to
see if he had done enough to win.
The gap between
the breakaway and the peloton had been coming down and after it was reduced to
one minute the time checks stopped.
And so Bingham
and his team mates in the breakaway were left with no option but to drill it to
the finish and hope for the best.
In the end they
had 1:37 on the bunch containing the yellow jersey; plenty of time to dislodge
Richardson who had 43 seconds over Bingham at the start of the stage.
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Indeed, having won Saturday’s stage 2 so strongly – from the front in a solo move out of the breakaway – yesterday was a disappointing end for him.
As a result of the time Richardson lost, he went from having a commanding lead over his nearest rival,
Bingham, to slipping back to 5th
overall.
However, having
ridden so strongly in winning the second stage, Richardson can now face into
the second half of the season with confidence.
There was no
doubting that Bingham was the man of the moment; the veteran rider taking a big
win in a hard fought event run so well down the years.
The overall
winner, whose own club Newry Wheelers promotes the race, had finished 2nd on Saturday’s stage 2 to
keep himself in the hunt for yellow.
Chris Richardson
and Alan Bingham proved strongest of the breakaway that gained minutes on stage 2.
They pressed ahead,
clear of the escape group in the closing stages, before Richardson left Bingham
to win solo by 43 seconds.
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While Bingham was
left 2nd overall going into the last day, the time he had to make up on the
yellow jersey was not insignificant.
The Newry man
decided on a strategy of attack after allowing the opening 30 miles of the
final stage to unfold.
Just before the
first passage of the Mountnorris
climb a small group pulled clear, including Des Woods (Newry Wheelers) and Calvin
Moore (Omagh Wheelers).
Bingham jumped
across to them but Richardson was up to the task; having a chase in place to
close down his rival for yellow.
However,
immediately he was caught, Bingham attacked again. And this time the move
worked out.
He was joined by
a very strong line-up which
included: Gareth McCullough (Armagh Down CC), Cathir Doyle (Powerhouse Sport),
Des Woods (Newry Wheelers), Michael McGlynn (Omagh Wheelers), Nathan Keown
(North Down CC) and Ciaran Cahoon (Davy McCall Foundation).
This combination
worked well and pulled out a gap of close to 1:30 before being joined by
four more with about 20 miles to go.
Those
reinforcements were: Calvin Moore (Omagh Wheelers), Jonny Taylor (Carn Composite),
Colm Quinn (Newry Wheelers) and Paul Wilkinson (West Down Composite).
As the gap came
down, the Newry men in the breakaway put their backs into it and on the line
the gap was enough for Bingham to win.
The battle for
the stage win was won by McCullough who beat Wilkinson for victory two seconds
ahead of McGlynn, Moore and Doyle.
Bingham was 6th,
among the group of breakaway men just two seconds down on the stage winner.
The result meant
he took the title from Moore by 25 seconds with Keown, now pushing on the door
for national junior selection, in 3rd at 29 seconds.
Cathal Clarke (Armagh Down CC) claimed the points jersey, Michael McGlynn took the climbers’ classification, Keown won the young rider classification and Johnny McRoberts (Banbridge CC) was best A3 overall.
For final stage results and classifications follow this link.
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