Charlie Prendergast has opened his account for 2020 with victory over Paul Forristal in a three-up sprint that decide the Collins Christie Memorial main event today just ahead of the rest of the breakaway men.
It was a top quality win for Mayo man Prendergast and
another very good performance for Forristal as they managed to get clear of a
top tier breakaway, with Darnell Moore, on the final lap of eight.
As well as the eventual top three, also in the final breakaway were: Marc Potts (Caldwell Cycles), Sean Murnane (UCD Cycling Club), Cian Keogh (Spellman Dublin Port), Gareth O’Neill (Caldwell Cycles), Alan Bingham (Newry Wheelers) Daire Feeley (Strata 3-VeloRevolution), Andy Bye (Unattached Ulster) and Conor McCann (Inspired Cycling).
That large group formed at the front after an initial breakaway got clear on the fourth lap and a chase group set off after it.
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In that first breakaway were Moore, Feeley, Murnane, O'Neill, Paul Kennedy (Spellman Dublin Port) and Angus Fyffe (Caldwell Cycles).
On the last lap the final breakaway formed when the initial escape group merged with the chasing group, with 11 men up front fighting for the win at the end of the contest.
In the last 3km of the race, Prendergast, Moore and
Forristal managed to get clear of the others, though they only ever had a
matter of seconds on the chasers.
And while Forristal (Strata 3-VeloRevolution) had won the Mountnugent GP from a breakaway the week before last, Prendergast (Dan Morrissey-MIG-Pactimo) had the measure of him today.
Moore (Vitus Pro Cycling) had to be content with 3rd
place, a few lengths behind the close sprint between winner and runner-up.
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It was Moore who led out the sprint but Forristal went
past him only for Prendergast to have the speed and staying power to beat them
both.
Feeley was best of the rest; the form rider of recent weeks missing the decisive three-man move that contained his team mate, Forristal, but winning the sprint from the remains of the breakaway for 4th place.
Then came Murnane in 5th, from Potts and Keogh,
who won last night’s Beechmount Cup at the same venue, and McCann in 8th.
O’Neill was 9th and Bye was 10th, with supervet Bingham
bringing up the rear of the breakaway in 11th place.
In the A3-Junior race John Priest of Lucan CRC won the
day; the veteran unleashing his famed sprint to add another notch to a very
long list of career wins at all levels.
Priest broke away in a three-man move on the final lap of five with Sean Mullen of host club Navan Road Club and Kevin Lynch from Newry Wheelers.
Mullen and Lynch were first to flee the bunch with just under 15km to the finish, with Priest getting across to them on his own just inside the 10km to go mark having distanced an Ards CC rider he was with.
In the sprint to the line Priest took the verdict from
Mullen, who went early and led it out, with Lynch rounding out the podium.
The finish of the A4 race was marred by a very
unfortunate crash, though one of the fallers, Andy Ross of VC Glendale, won the
race as he slid over the line, off his bike.
More to follow about all categories when we get full
results.
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