Irish National cycling championships

Monday, August 25, 2014
Ballymena Road Club – Chain Reaction Cycles – U16, youth rider Breandan McCavana finished a creditable sixth in the time trial section of the Irish National cycling championships last weekend.

Ballymoney Cycling Club was the promoters of this very prestigious event which was to have three races over two days.
The first event was a time trial on Saturday morning, from Dunloy to the Joey Dunlop Leisure Centre on the edge of Ballymoney, a distance of just under 5 miles.  The village of Dunloy had riders from clubs from all over Ireland descend upon it.  Breandan was off at 11.38am and thankfully the weather was calm and the road was drying out well for his effort against the clock. 
Breandan was sixth in the event – where literally only a few seconds separated many of the riders in the top ten. Breandan's time of 12minutes 07 seconds was an excellent effort and he beat some of the "big names” for his age group.  The time trial is a discipline that suits Breandan - just him, the bike, a road and a stopwatch.  

After lunch, all the competitors, their families and supporters regrouped in the village of Stranocum to sign on for the afternoon road race.  Breandan was in the U16 championship and their race was held over 5 laps (30 miles) of the rolling countryside circuit that took in the "Kirk Hills” just outside Stranocum, before cutting across to Dervock and back via the Stroan Road, through the village of Stranocum and back up to the start/finish line just outside the Primary School. Straight from the gun, a very fast pace was set by the front riders this, inevitably, led to some riders dropping off the back after the first lap.  Luckily it remained dry for the event and Breandan was in the lead bunch for the entire race and finished well enough to hold tenth in the overall General Classification.

Sunday morning was another early start for everyone.  Ballymoney town centre was the location for the final event - a criterium.   The Under 16 boy’s event was the last to be contested on a very technically challenging and fast, figure of eight, style circuit.  On health and safety grounds, the race was cut from 40 minutes to 20mins, plus an additional 3 laps.  Although not his favourite cycle racing discipline, Breandan did very well to finish with the second group in the criterium. 
All in all, Breandan gave a great account of himself in his final year at Under 16 level, where he represented Ballymena Road Club with pride.