Marcus Christie smashes National 50 Mile Time Trial record by over 5 mins at Ulster Champs

Comeback man Marcus Christie has taken a sledgehammer to the Irish National 50 Mile Time Trial record today, beating the previous mark by a huge margin of over five minutes.

Christie, who rides unattached and is from Derry-Londonderry, posted a time of 1 hour 40 minutes and 10 seconds at the Ulster 50 TT Championships today, to take 5:32 for the previous time of 1:45:42 set by John Herverin (Clann Eireann CC) this time last year.

The new record holder – subject to ratification by Cycling Ireland set the new standard at the Ulster title race run by Maryland Wheelers on the Woodgreen circuit in Ballymena. The event was the Tommy Givan 50 mile TT event which also doubled at the provincial title race.

John Madden of Curran Racing was second some 7:12 in arrears and also picked up the vets gold while fresh from his win in the Ballivor GP on Saturday, Bryan McCrystal (Cuchulainn CC) recorded the third quickest time of a very large field; clocking 1:47:26.

The result is a fantastic one for Christie who four years ago was such a strong junior against the clock that he was put into the elite high performance squad and was also in the U23 international set up. However, his health suffered when he lost a lot of weight very quickly and he then picked up a very bad Achilles injury which threatened his career.

Under the watchful eye of former top international Tommy Evans – who has also been coaching Unitedhealthcare pro Philip Deignan to a huge return to form this year – Christie has been steadily clawing his way back into form, underlined by his recent bronze in the U23 National TT Championships last month.

Returned to competition over a year now, the improvement in his condition has apparently been aided by an operation for his troublesome tendon last year and his ride today puts him in a great position to crack for more results and try and gain a place in the Northern Ireland Commonwealth Games team for Glasgow next year.