France-bound Charlie Prendergast profits from aggression to win Loughrea GP

Charlie Prendergast will race in France later in the season but having started his 2014 campaign on home shores he took victory in the Loughrea GP in Co Galway at the weekend despite the attentions of the Liquidworx-Fitscience team. Seen here in 2012 national championships action in Clonmel (Photo: Mark Quigley)

Charlie Prendergast (Cunga CC) won Sunday’s TriBikes-SIP Energy Loughrea GP from Mike Storan (Liquidworx-Fitscience) on a cold and wet afternoon in the west.

Prendergast, the national junior road race champion from 2009, was the strongest at the end of the hard and hilly 102 kilometre race.

He had to be on his toes to see off the challenge of Storan and his Liquidworx-Fitscience team, from which Paddy Clarke was 3rd and Gareth McCormack 5th.

Louisburgh man Prendergast, who will head to France next month to join up with the Brittany-based Hennebont Lochrist cycling team, is clearly in good form after the winter racing break.

He was in the main move of the day that featured Storan and his team mate Chris Reilly. But when Reilly uncharacteristically blew up in the latter stages, Prendergast made no mistake in the charge for the line.

A total of 55 riders took to the line for the main event of the day and a strong A3 group were given a very generous advantage of four minutes over the scratch bunch.

But by the halfway point that gap had been cut to less than two minutes. The five-man Liquidworx-Fitscience team were doing a lot of strong pulling, while Western Lakes and Galway Bay CC also made considerable efforts to close the gap.

Eventually an escape group of around eight riders broke off the front of the scratch group with all the aforementioned riders there, as well as Charlie Prendergast's younger brother Jason, now riding for the Liquidworx-Fitscience team.

With just over a lap to go, the elder Prendergast attacked and only Reilly and Storan responded. Mark Shannon (VisitNenagh.ie) was left chasing with two more Liquidworx-Fitscience riders for company, though the latter were not obliged to work with two men up the road.

Reilly dropped out from the trio up front, leaving Storan and Prendergast to fight it out for the win and the latter made no mistake.

Paddy Clarke just about pipped Shannon for third and Caimin Muldoon (Nicolas Roche Performance Team), rode a very aggressive race to take sixth.

Local rider Brian Quigley took a very god eighth place in just his first race at this level.

The A4 event was fought out by 50 riders for three laps of the 17 kilometre circuit. The pace was furious from the gun, resulting in no breaks gaining any significant time.

And as expected, it came down to a bunch sprint with Seven Springs' rider Kevin McGinley taking the honours in just his second ever race at this level. Brendan Delaney (North Tipperary CC) just edged out Keith McCarthy (Blarney CC) for third.