Cromie fastest in Wheelers Road Race

The race was handicapped into four groups with the riders being separated by four minutes.

Colm McIlfatrick and Stephen Kane made up the first group, the second was Nigel Kerr, Davy Park and Damien Hazlett and the third consisted of Mark Wilkenson, Dominic Drumm and Ciaran Mullan.

The scratch group consisted of four talented riders, which included sprint specialist, Kyle Cromie of the Bann Wheelers, under-16 rider Kyle Cole from Roe Valley Cycling Club and Ballymoney Cycling Club’s Steven McAllister and Bryan Mc Kinney.

All four have experienced success in open racing this season, Kyle Cromie was runner up in the Bann Valley Classic, Kyle Cole has placed consistently in open races all season and is targeting a medal at the National Championships.

Steven McAllister and Bryan Mc Kinney have also performed well in the A4 races and both have had victories in the category, which led to them being upgraded to A3 riders.

The talent in the scratch group was evident and they had all the groups caught early in the second lap. The race came to a sprint finish and with Cromie and Mc Allister being the natural sprinters in the group it was no surprise that the two were the first to cross the line respectively.

Kyle Cole showed his class in taking third in the sprint on restricted gears while Mark Wilkenson and Ciaran Mullan put in impressive rides and could not be separated for fourth place.

Damien Hazlett had lost touch with the main group in the last lap but put in a mighty effort to make contact with the group again then take sixth.

Nigel Kerr rode strongly to take seventh, eighth was Dominic Drumm, ninth Bryan Mc Kinney, Davy Parke and Stephen Kane were joint tenth and Colm McIlfatrick showed determination to finish twelfth.

* The Bann Wheelers Causeway Cycle Challenge will be held on Sunday, July 25 at 10am. Registration is from 8.30am and the event starts at 10am.

The 30 and 60 mile Charity Ride will start and finish at Coleraine Rugby Club. Refreshments and T-shirts will be provided

The minimum donationis 15 and proceeds will go to Macmillan Cancer Support and the Blind Centre, Coleraine.