2017 Road Race Season Preview
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Dromara CC riders have been training hard over the winter or talking about how hard their turbo sessions are. All the regular riders on club runs are looking strong and building towards their season goals. Some riders have been taking it a bit serious with ftp tests.
With the road race season fast approaching and the season kicking off on Saturday 18th of February with the Travers Engineering Annaclone GP followed by the Phoenix GP on Sunday the 19th, it won’t be long to the race on entry central starts with riders eager to get entered before the race fills up.
Dromara CC have a strong team of road racers with representation across all categories with a lot of new faces this year in A4 trying their hand at a few road races.
Rumours have it some have been taking part in the cyclocross series but spending more time cleaning the bike afterwards. The majority of the A4 riders have been training hard on and off-road and it shouldn’t be long before they progress up to A3.
Full list of riders below who are currently signed up to take part in open road races.
| A1 | A2 | A3 | Juniors | A4 |
| Nathan Mullan | Gavin Magowan | David Dickson | Jack Ferguson | Kevin Walker |
| Chris Magown | Matthew Armstrong | Aaron Watson | Darren McCann | |
| Ronnie Smyth | Stephen Irvine | Neil Armstrong | ||
| Robert McDonald | Gareth Woodhall | |||
| Stephen Wallace | Jonny Ward | |||
| David Henderson | ||||
| Colin McCready | ||||
| Trevor Blythe | ||||
| David Broome | ||||
| Stephen Stranney | ||||
| Gerard Doyle | ||||
| Derek Graham | ||||
| Brian Kellet |
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The major races early on in the season are:
| Date | Event | Location |
| 18th February | Travers Engineering Annaclone GP | Annaclone |
| 19th February | Phoenix GP | Nutts Corner |
| 26th February | John Haldane Memorial | Newry |
| 4th March | John Moore | Carryduff |
| 18th March | Wallace Caldwell | Ballymena |
| 19th March | Carn Classic | Maghera |
| 25th March | Tour of Ards | Newtownards |
| 26th March | PJ Logan | Dungannon |
| 1st April | Killinchy GP | Killinchy |
| 3rd June | Emma McMullan Road Race | Bishopscourt |
Full race calendar available at the below link:
http://www.cyclingireland.ie/page/events/events-calendar/road-events
Stage Racing
With several double header weekends throughout the season it will be a good opportunity for riders aiming to take part in stage races throughout the year to test their form racing two days in a row. Stage Races that Dromara CC will be supporting riders include Tour of the North, Newry 3 Day and Omagh 3 Day.
Provisional Teams for stage races:
| Tour of the North (A1,2,3) | Newry 3 Day (A2/A3) | Omagh 3 Day (A4) |
| Date: 14th – 16th April | Date: 30th June – 2nd July | Date: 28th – 30th July |
| Nathan Mullan | Jack Ferguson | Jonny Ward |
| Gavin Magowan | Aaron Watson | Darren McCann |
| Chris Magowan | Matthew Armstrong | Kevin Walker |
| Stephen Irvine | David Dickson | TBD |
| David McKnight | TBD |
The above teams are provisional and changes can be made based on performance of riders.
Team Entries
The committee have agreed that they will cover at least 50% of riders entry for the above events.
For team events all riders will need to pay in full up front before team is entered and club will reimburse 50% of entry back to each rider after the event.
However if the team leader finishes top 3 or the team finishes top 3 in the team classification then the club will cover the full team’s entry.
Mileage will be paid for team car.
Club Members
For team events we are looking for club members who would be interested in helping out with team car duties or team helper. If interested please send an email to committee@dromaracc.co.uk all help would be greatly appreciated by the riders.
Licences
A reminder to anyone who hasn’t renewed their race licence for 2017 then this can be completed online via the Cycling Ireland website.
http://www.cyclingireland.ie/page/membership
Wishing all riders in the club a successful 2017 season.
David
Photos by The Belgian Project
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