By Paddy Kelly,
Bray Wheelers PRO

Bray Wheelers had a strong squad at the Corkman and The Tour of Ulster stage over the bank holiday weekend.

The Corkman was open to entrants for Junior,3rd & 2nd category riders and consisting off three fifty to sixty mile stages and a time trial.

Ulster also hosted a challenging schedule with three seventy to eighty mile stages and a hill climb style time trial,with a field including defending champions and professionals such as Timmy Barry and Tommy Evans the pace was going to reflect that of a top 1st category race. Michael O'Donell former international and Shay Elliott Memorial winner who has recently resigned for Bray was a welcome return to the team travelling to Cork acting in a mentor role for an enthusiastic team in need of guidance. Adam Kelly made his statement early into the weekend with a fourth place finish on stage one and a subsequent third place in stage two demonstrating his excellent time trial abilities and securing the yellow jersey for Bray. John Lynch and Keith Slowey both loyal team mates worked for Adam throughout the next two stages positioning John on the front of the peleton riding at an aggressive pace to avoid any attacks form opposing teams and chasing down any breakaways that threatened the yellow yersey. The teams performance was not all smooth with Johnie Cruise forced to abandon the race on stage one due to sickness however Bray were unphased by this setback and ride with discipline John taking second and Adam securing a fine victory first overall on General Classification.

The Tour of Ulster was used as preparation and selection purposes for the approaching FBD Milk Ras. From day one the field was torn apart with repeated attacks from Pro-teams trying to gain time on GC for their prominent team members. Bray managed to keep at least one man in the majority of these moves with the Hightlights being Fergal Kelly finish 11th on stage two and Derek Cunningham placed in the top twenty in the time trial two great results considering the level of competition.The ever diligent Bray men Paddy & Fergal Kelly,Derek Cunningham, Brian Harris, Frank O'leary and Rob Wyse stuck to a rigid training programme for the weekend riding a further seventeen miles to their accomadation at the end of an eighty mile stage one to give themselves the edge over the competition for the hundred mile Ras stages.

The club hosted The Christy McManus memorial race on Saturday finishing in Roundwood.Urban Monks was first in the Junior Category and Paddy Kelly in the senior category who had broken away from the peleton with six others finished a close second in a sprint finish.The riders would like to thank all who volunteered to organise the race and would encourage any potential sponsor of the Bray team for the FBD Milk Ras to contact any member of the club.

Bray back in Yellow