Dowling (leading) heading towards the Conor Pass and stage victory in last weekend's 'Kerry Group Ras Mumhan' (Photo: Pat Doherty)
‘Kerry Group Ras Mumhan’ stage winner and yellow jersey wearer, Mark Dowling has shown his winning form is anything but a flash in the pan by taking a very comfortable victory in the Brendan Carroll Memorial last night, Friday.
Dowling looked very strong as he simply rode away from the breakaway and spent the last of the six laps out front alone. He took victory with around one minute in hand on the flat and fast Piltown circuit in north Co Dublin.
The winner led in a clean sweep by his DID Dunboyne team, with the Meath-based outfit filling the podium and also taking fourth and sixth. The only rider to spoil their party in the top six was Colm Laverty of the promoting Stamullen M Donnelly, who came home in fifth place.
Advertisement
The race was a handicapped affair – over six laps of a flat 10km circuit – with the groups coming together after around two laps and the racing starting in earnest from that point.
Dowling told stickybottle that he was sitting in the bunch with a couple of laps done when he noticed a strong looking group with a number of Stamullen riders going clear. He jumped across to it but when he caught it he could see there was another group up ahead that appeared to be packed with his own team mates.
“When we caught that group I could see there was a good few DIDs in it so I rode really hard at the front to get the gap open, to make sure we pulled it out,” he said.
He added that while the group rode well for a further two laps to maintain the gap on the bunch behind, he started to become concerned that the pace was slowing and that they were about to be caught.
“There were seven or eight riders obviously looking at all the DIDs in the group and not too willing to ride and then you had us thinking of the guys who weren’t riding. The pace was too slow so I thought I would attack with around one and half laps left; just with the intention of getting the break racing again and hoping that that would keep us clear.”
“I was expecting to dangle off the front for a few miles and then for someone to come up to me, but after around five minutes on my own I was really away so I put the head down.”
Related News
Taking the bell for the last lap, the gap to the breakaway was still modest. But by the finish the next time around it had grown to one minute. This was despite a period of intense attacking by the chasing group. It left Dowling plenty of time to savour his win.
While the group behind had split coming in the road, it regrouped just before the finish, with Fiachra O'Mhuire then jumping the others on the final bend and getting enough of a gap to take second, followed by fastman Aidan Crowley and Javan Nulty, with Laverty fifth and last month’s Waller Cup winner Tim O’Regan in sixth.
Dowling said he was now feeling strong after last weekend’s ‘Kerry Group Ras Mumhan’, where he won the second stage on the summit of Conor Pass and also wore the leader’s jersey for a day. He was hopeful of a good period of form in the months head.
Results: Brendan Carroll Memorial
1 Mark Dowling (DID Dunboyne)
2 Fiachra O'Mhuire (DID Dunboyne)
3 Aidan Crowley (DID Dunboyne)
4 Javan Nulty (DID Dunboyne)
5 Colm Laverty (Stamullen M Donnelly)
6 Tim O'Regan (DID Dunboyne)
7 Daniel Whiting (Orwell Wheelers)
8 John Caffrey (Lucan CC)
1st A2 Jason Howick (Bray Wheelers)
2nd A2 Patrick O'Brien (Orwell Wheelers)
3rd A2 Alan Burke, (Kilcullen CC)
1st A3 Simon O'Dea, (Navan Road Club)
2nd A3 Conor Grimes (Clann Eireann CC)
3rd A3 Eddie Lynch (Orwell CC)
1st A4 David Dargle (Stamullen M Donnelly RC)
2nd A4 Gareth Dargle (Stamullen M Donnelly RC)
3rd A4 Dermot Treleaven (Swords CC)
1st Junior: Paul Dargle (Stamullen M Donnelly RC
2nd Junior: Ciaran Campbell, Drogheda Wheelers CC
3rd Junior: Ciaran O'Connell, Stamullen M Donnelly RC
Primes
1 Tim O'Regan, DID Dunboyne (double prime winner)
3 Javan Nulty, DID Dunboyne
4 James Lynch, Navan RC
Topics
