Charlie
Prendergast has extended his brilliant start to the season, taking his fourth
win of the season at the Deenside Cup.
The Castlebar
Cycling Club rider was best from a breakaway despite having launched an
unsuccessful attack just before the finish.
However, despite that effort coming up shot, he still had the legs to win in a sprint; retaining the cup he won 12 months ago.
And he adds this
win to those he took in Rás
Mhaigheo – where he won a stage and the overall – as well as the Waller Cup.
Prendergast has
also been runner-up at the Mick Lally Memorial, Rás Naomh Finian, a stage in Rás
Mhaigheo and the Castlebar CC.
At the Deenside up in Castelcomer, Kilkenny, yesterday Lucy O’Donnell of O’Leary Stone Kanturk made her mark with victory in the women’s race.
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She and Scott Orwell’s Yvonne Doran broke away from the breakaway and rode to the finish for a two-up sprint won by O’Donnell.
In the men’s
event Prendergast got the better of Coombes Connor winner Paul Forristal
(Orwell Wheelers) and EvoPro Racing man Cormac Mcgeough.
The main event
was run over four laps, for a total race distance of 140km. However, it wasn’t
until the start of the third lap that the winning of race began to play out.
At that point a
nine-man group went clear, with the eventual winner present. They were joined
later by another four, including Mcgeough and Aaron Kearney of EvoPro, to make
13 up front.
Prendergast
attacked hard up the climb on the final lap and pulled out a decent gap. With
about 5km to go he was dangling off the front with about 10 seconds in hand.
However, the breakaway men pegged him back with about 1.5km still to race. Once caught Prendergast had time to recover and then win the sprint from Forristal and Mcgeough.
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Then came John
Hodge of Carrick Wheelers, David Brody of Castlebar CC, Ronan Killeen of Lucan
CRC and Kearney.
Stephen Murphy of
Black Rose, who was also in the breakaway, was 8th in the sprint to the line,
with Andy Maguire of Bio-DHL-FRS 9th and Greg Swinand of Dan
Morrissey-MIG-Pactimo rounding out the top 10.
The women’s race
was the latest round of the national intermediate league. A six-rider escape
went clear on the opening lap.
However, second time up the climb the eventual winner and runner-up rode clear and stayed away to the finish.
Michelle McKinney
of Galway Bay CC was 3rd with TC Racing’s Niamh O’Dwyer and Niamh Stephens in
4th and 5th.
Clodagh Ní Ghallchóir (AAA) was 6th followed by Caoimhe May (Scott
Orwell) and Ewa Kuras (Arcane).
Eva Brennan took
the unplaced junior prize while the queen of the hills prize was won by Caoimhe
O’Brien of Lakeside Wheelers.
In the A2 race Peter McColgan (St Tiernan’s) ran out the winner after an epic breakaway of around 50km solo.
Brian McNally of Scott Orwell took 2nd with Nathan McGreehan of UCD Cycling Club rounding out the podium.
In the A3 event a three-man breakaway fought it out for the win, with Mark Smith (Ciclotel Travel) getting the verdict.
He took a close sprint from Rhys Kenney
of Comeragh CC, with James McMorrow of Drogheda Wheelers in 3rd.
The A4 race came
down to a sprint from the bunch, though it was whittled down by the finish.
Jack Corcoran
(Unattached) took the victory with Niall McCarthy of McNally Swords next and
Michael Farrell (Waterford RT) in 3rd place.
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