Lindsay Watson (Powerhouse Sport) has gotten his season off to a flying start with victory in the main event at the John Haldane Memorial promoted by Newry Wheelers today. While the eventual winner initially missed the boat after the decisive breakaway got clear, he had the legs to bridge the gap solo.
And as the race progressed, when the strongmen pushed on from the breakaway, Watson was present again before pulling the trigger at the finish to open his account for 2023.
The other events promoted on the day also produced some great racing on a breezy day out, with Travis Harkness (Scott Bright Motor Group) also taking a strong win from a breakaway in the A3-Junior race.
The main event today - over six laps, 57 miles, for A1 and A2 riders - was handicapped and with roughly equal numbers in each group, the starting gap was neutralised after the the first lap. Once the juncture was made, the attacks began firing off the front.
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A group of about 12 to 15 riders eventually got clear and when they had a gap of about 20 seconds, Watson made his move from the bunch and got across to the leaders on his own. The gap between the leaders and bunch soon began to grow and reached about one minute.
In that lead group with Watson were, among others: Gareth O’Neill (Team PB Performance), Nathan Mullan (Dromara CC), Mitchell McLaughlin (All human-VeloRevolution), Peter McLean (Velo Café Magasin), Paul Wilkinson (West Down Wheelers), John Buller (Team PB Performance), Sean Landers (UCD CC), Peter Wakely (Unattached Ulster), Aaron Quinn (Four Masters CC) and Ian Inglis (Kinning Cycles).
With just over two laps to go, O’Neill attacked from the breakaway and powered clear. Though there was a long way to go, Watson went after him. That strong duo then joined forces and built a gap of 30 to 40 seconds.
However, at that point the chasing group began working and slowly closed in on the two leaders, getting the gap down to about 10 seconds at one point on the penultimate.
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Though it looked like the two leaders would be caught, the chasing group then stalled a little, allowing Watson and O'Neill to open the gap again. Behind them, McLaughlin and McLean attacked from the chasing group and managed to bridge the gap to Watson and O'Neill.
The four leaders worked well until the last half lap, with their gap growing out to about 30 seconds. With just under 1km to go, and with the tailwind in his favour, Watson jumped, got a gap and managed to hold off his breakaway companions to win. O'Neill was 2nd with McLaughlin 3rd and McLean 4th.
After the four-man winning group, Mullan claimed 5th place with Buller 6th, Wakely 7th, Quinn 8th, Inglis 9th and Landers 10th.
In the A3-Junior race, cyclocross international Travis Harkness (Scott Bright Motor Group) took victory from a three-man breakaway. Junior rider Harkness and eventual runner-up Sean Gallagher (Four Masters CC) set their stall out early, getting clear for about 16km shortly after the race started. However, they were then caught. And it was not until the penultimate lap, of five, that the winning group went clear.
Harkness was there again with Gallagher, and this time they were joined by Dromara CC's Eoghan McGuigan. That trio built a gap of about 40 seconds. While the front group attacked each other nearing the finish, they arrived at the line for a three-up sprint, won by Harkness from Gallagher and McGuigan.
They just about held off the bunch, with the sprint for 4th place won by David Dougan (Ballymena CC) from Declan Rogers (Dunloy CC), Ross Blaney (North Down CC) and Dermot O'Kane (Bann Valley CC).
Aine Doherty (VC Glendale) won the women's category within the A3-Junior race, from Catherine Sands of promoting club Newry Wheelers and Jemma Speers (North Down CC).
The A4 race came down to a bunch sprint, won by Carl Lowry (Madigan CC) from David Convery (Armagh Down) and James Alexander (McConvey Cycles). Padraig McKernan (Roadman CC) was 4th with Ronan Kimberly (Newry Wheelers CC) 5th, Graeme Cross (Velo Cafe Magasin) 6th, Daire Nulty (Breffni Wheelers) 7th and Alan Watson (Dromara CC) in 8th place.
