The year 2020 has been a very challenging year for everyone and none other than in the world of sport. Major events such as the Olympics in Tokyo have had to be postponed due to the pandemic and it has spiraled down to our local club events. The club events season normally starts in April, however with Covid – 19 a major factor in the spring, our season kicked off in July after the Government and Cycling Ireland gave the go ahead with certain restrictions imposed.
All entries had to be done online prior to the event, and comprehensive Risk Assessments carried out, as a result, each rider was allocated a start time and was instructed to turn up two minutes before they were due to go off, after they had finished the Time Trial there was no socialising waiting to see each other’s results it was a case of once you finish you leave the area. Even with these restrictions imposed the riders were happy to get a few events in before the year was out, as a result we were able to organise six club Time Trials and a hill climb. Towards the end of the season we organised the Tommy White Memorial, an Open Time Trial on the Warrenpoint carriageway and it incorporated the Para-cycling League as well as the Carson & Lutton Trophies. This was, as always a well-attended event.
All these events took place under the watchful eye of Toni Hannigan who acted as the Covid Officer.
Due to the restrictions we were unable to run with our successful Interclub league that we have ran this past two years with other local clubs TVR, VC Iveagh and Cornerstone, CC Here’s hoping that we can get it running next year in the usual fashion.
This year we were unable to hold our gala evening, so we had to hold an open air awards presentation, maintaining social distancing and the usual precautions.
Let’s all hope next year things will return to some normality and we are able to run a full calendar of events.
Our winners this year from the events we held were:
10 Mile TT Weir Cup – Paul Hannigan
10 Mile TT Wills Cup – Peadar Curran
15 Mile TT Skelly Cup – Peadar Curran
25 Mile TT –Quinn Cup – JP Rice
15 Mile TT Mac 2UP Trophy – Gareth McKee & Johnny McRoberts
10 Mile TT Fusco Cup – John Buller
Gerry Beggs Trophy Hill Climb – John Buller
Masters 10 Mile TT Carson Cup – Brian Hannon
Best Handicap 10 Mile TT Lutton Cup – David Ross
Tandem Trophy – Phil Beattie & Chris McCann
Best all round Female (BAR) – Ruth McKee
Best all round Male (BAR) – John Buller
Gerry Beggs Trophy Photo of the year – Stephen Fitzsimmons
Towell Trophy Club person of the year – Willie Weir
International Rider of the Year – Matthew Teggart
