Wilson and Caldwell take sprint wins at Newry’s John Haldane Memorial races

Peter Wilson sprints to victory in the ‘A’ race (Photo: Darren Crawford)

Organised group riding and commitment from the gun saw the A3 riders in yesterday’s John Haldane Memorial in Newry outwit the A1 and A2 groups, staying clear in the handicapped main event to fight out the win in a tight sprint.

It was Maryland Wheelers’ Peter Wilson who converted his chance, taking victory by edging out Mark Potts (Omagh Wheelers), with Ryan McDermott (westtyronevelo.com) in third.

The A3s were off first in their own group, followed by two other separate groups made up of the A2 and A1 riders.

In the big lead group a large breakaway went clear very early on, with the 15 escapees combining well to ensure the chasers never got on terms.

Behind them, the A1s set off with great purpose, quickly catching the A2 group and the main A3 bunch; the work rate in the scratch group was so good that they took back two minutes on the A2s in the first ten miles of racing.

But by the time they had caught everybody apart from the early A3 breakaway up the road, that group had a very good lead and wasn’t falling apart. It pressed on in breezy conditions over five laps (48 miles) of the Newry to Warrenpoint circuit.

The best of the A1 riders – including the likes of Gary Cranston (East Antrim Audi), Ryan Connor (Ballymena Chain Reaction), Dessie Foley (Phoenix CC) and Glen Kinning (East Antrim Audi) – clearly sensed the peloton was too big to catch the hard working escapees.

The counterattacking from the bunch was furious as riders tried to get across to the breakaway in small groups. However, all that action came to nothing, with most of the large A3 breakaway arriving at the finish in tact for a sprint finish.

The A4 race was a more predictable affair, with lots of attacking but with the race eventually decided in a bunch sprint, which was unfortunately marred by a crash.

Omagh’s Paul Caldwell emerged from the chaos to take a good win, with Tommy Rafferty (Slane Cycles) in second and Ken Doyle (North Pole) in third.