Lakeland CC turned on the sunshine this weekend for one hundred riders who turned up at the Share Centre for the Lakeland Two Day stage race for A3 riders.

Saturday’s stage would cover sixty miles of scenic roads around the lakes of Fermanagh.

And, the race had hardly begun when three riders leapt off the front and began to open a gap on the main field. These included Barry Hamilton (North Down CC), Nicky Gormley (Carn Wheelers) and Conor Sprice of Lakeland CC. A couple of others bridged the gap but by the time they started on the first of the three laps of the Florencecourt circuit part of the course, all but Nicky Gormley had been swallowed up by the peloton.

Gormley continued to drive it on his own for almost two laps opening up a gap of one minute twenty seconds at one point before he too was swallowed up. Lakeland’s Raymond Kerr was one of the riders who tried to chase down Gormley and he opened a gap of 25 seconds back to the bunch before being reeled back in.

Major movers in the bunch who helped to bring everything back together were Jake Gray and Aaron Swan of the Nicholas Roche Performance Team. A crash in the last five miles split the bunch a little but fortunately no-one was too badly injured. Coming into the final uphill finish Gray and Swan went to the front and drove hard to the line with Gray taking the win from Swan. Shane Quinn of Longford took third ahead of East Tyrone’s Richard Archer while Banbridge Junior, Cameron McIntyre, was fifth. Damian Lagan of Inishfree Wheelers came sixth while Cookstown’s Alastair Steele and John McGlaughlin were seventh and eighth. Glen Howe (Bann Wheelers) and Emmet Vallely (Square Wheels) completed the top ten.

Day Two Heading into Sunday’s 2.4 mile TT stage from Share centre to Lisnaskea, Gray wore Yellow, Swan the white young rider jersey, Ronan Fitzpatrick (CKR Racing) the Polka dot climbers Jersey and Gormley was be in the Red Combatitive Jersey. Jake Gray of the Nicholas Roche Magnet.ie team retained his Yellow jersey following the time trial stage Gray, who was last man off, held onto Yellow by the smallest of margins when he won the TT in a time of 5’40.17” a mere 0.25 of a second faster than Gerard McNally of Bann valley. Andrew Reid of CCT put in an excellent performance to take third in a time of 5’41.97” with Glen Howe of Bann Wheelers in fourth position a second later.

Banbridge Junior Cameron McIntyre took fifth ahead of CCT’s John McGlaughlin while Emmett Vallely (Square Wheels), Mervyn Linton (Ballymoney CC), Peter Morrison (Northern Dave Kane) and James Ambrose (North Down) completed the top ten.

The final stage of the Lakeland Two day stage race got underway on Sunday afternoon in beautiful sunshine. Following the morning’s time trial Jake Gray of NRPT was in Yellow with team-mate Aaron Swan wearing the Points Jersey. Racing went from the drop of the flag with Saturday’s most Combative rider, Nicky Gormley (Carn Wheelers) going on an early charge. The bunch were wise to him by now and simply sat on behind him and no matter how hard he tried this time he could not shake them off. The effect was to line the bunch out.

Next up to give it a lash was another Carn Wheelers rider, Eunan McAleese. He eventually managed to open a gap of almost 40 seconds before being reeled back in.

Mention of Fermanagh and Cavan brings to mind rivers and lakes but as the race moved between these two counties today the riders were to discover there is a lot more to them than just water. The route was rolly and incorporated some tough climbs such as Bellavalley. This was a long hard drag and it helped to string out the riders. A crash on the descent of this climb saw a few broken bikes and DNF’s although thankfully no-one was seriously hurt.

Jake Gray and Aaron Swan did their best to control the race and there was some aggressive riding by both of them. However, with only 16 seconds separating the top 20 riders on GC there was everything to play for and those in contention were letting nothing get away.

The final climb of the day was changed so the riders ascended from the shorter side due to a funeral taking place on the route. While the original climb was a torturous series of ramps up, the alternative route still provided a test of climbing skill and aggression. It was on this climb that Cameron McIntyre of Banbridge CC finally took the bit between the teeth and went for it. He opened up a gap on the main field which rose to 28 seconds making him Yellow on the road as he was only three seconds down at the start of the day. This young mountain biker put all his climbing skills to the test and crested the hill a clear winner.

Marc Heaney of Carn Wheelers was a second or two too slow and just missed jumping on McIntyre’s wheel. However he too cleared the bunch to take a well-deserved second place. Had it not been for his involvement in the crash on Stage 1 where he lost a minute and a half he could well have taken second overall. John Fitzpatrick of CKR Racing was third while Peter Morrison of Northern Dave Kane was fourth. Young Junior Jack O’Neill of Caldwell Cycles was fifth putting in an excellent ride against tough opposition.

In the end McIntyre took the Mountains Jersey and the Best Junior as well as the Yellow jersey - not a bad haul for a young man in his first year of road racing.

Carn Wheelers were named best team ahead of Lakeland CC and Caldwell Cycles Omagh.

Kieran McGrory was first Lakeland Rider finishing ninth in Stage Three and 15th over-all.

Such an excellent event does not run by itself and the team at Lakeland headed up by Race Director Tom White who pulled out all the stops to ensure that this was a great race. There were dozens of Marshalls around the course as well as plenty of motorbike marshals. The riders and spectators and officials were treated to a sit down roast chicken dinner while they waited for the presentations.

Commissaires on the day, Paul Devenney, Mark Lamb and Tosh Lavery were very professional and carried out their duties in a fair manner dealing quickly with any problems and crashes. There was a quick and accurate results service provided by Ian Barfioot, Alice Sherratt, Tom Gordon Parker and Alicja Černák. The Emergency Ambulance Service was also in attendance and not only was their prize money for the stages and categories there were also beautiful Belleek China trophies.

We would like to thank everyone involved in organising and running the event and all the riders - a great weekend’s racing.