Under-Age All-Irelands, 1999
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In the 1999 All-Ireland Under-Age Cycling
Championships that took place in Dunboyne, Co. Meath, riders from Kanturk Credit Union
Cycling Club were outright winners in the Under 13, 15 and 16 age groups. They were also
second and third in the U-11 category and won the team prize. Saturday morning’s circuit-race saw the club leading in four of the six age categories with wins by Evan Dennehy, Danny O’Connor, Paudi O’Brien and Barry Meade in the U-11, 13, 15 and 16 age categories. This also put the U-11 team into the lead in the team category. The time-trial on Saturday afternoon saw some changes in General Classification, mainly in the U-15 section where Paudi O’Brien lost the overall lead to Nicholas Roche, son of Tour de France winner, Stephen Roche. This meant that nothing short of a win was required on Sunday’s stage for Paudi to regain his place. Gavin Browne won the U-11 time-trial and Barry Meade and Danny O’Connor extended their points lead by also winning. The road-races on Sunday were the highlight of the championships and they turned out to be very tactical with the leading riders closely marking their rivals in the points ratings. In the U-11 event, the Kanturk riders were pipped into second place at the sprint but the first three riders won the team prize. These were Evan Dennehy Gavin Browne and Cian Daly. Evan and Gavin also won the overall silver and bronze medals. The other U-11 Kanturk riders were Pat Ahern, Noreen Curtin, Ian and Andrew Jordan. Noreen had one of her best results to date by coming sixth in the road-race. In the U-12 road-race, Andrew Kenneally was brought down in a nasty crash leading into the final sprin, and this deprived the team of any hope of getting into the points lead. The other members of that team were Maurice O’Brien and Keith Jordan. Danny O’Connor had a comfortable cushion of eight points going into the final U -13 road-race but he confirmed his recent good form by also winning the final sprint and winning the category outright. Marc O’Brien and Colin Cross were the other U-13 team members. Eoin Daly had a good result in the U-14 road race by sprinting to fourth place and came in the top 10 U-14 riders in the championships. Paudi O’Brien was the team-member put into most pressure by the points situation going into the final U-15 race. Paudi had to win this event to get his overall gold medal. In a tactical race where he was closely marked by the rest of the bunch, he duly obliged by winning the final hectic sprint. Barring an accident in the U-16 road-race, Barry Meade was assured of an outright win. He marked his nearest rivals closely and came in comfortably in fourth place. The dominance of the Kanturk Club in under-age cycling was again demonstrated by their winning of the half of the available categories. Commenting on the performance, team manager, Dan Curtin said that he was especially pleased by the performance of the younger riders. He said: "Our first group of riders has now emerged into the Junior ranks and are riding on Irish teams. The large number of young riders that are enjoying their cycling and succeeding in competition ensures the continued development of the Kanturk Credit Union Cycling Club." |