Mayo league final overall

Westport’s cyclist snatches overall Mayo cycling league.

Keith O Connell Covey Westport CC staged a magnificent comeback by winning the Mayo cycling league at the final race in Ballinrobe. Keith was lying in 3^rd position overall going into the final round, a solid performance throughout the league and a much improved TT where he bettered his first TT result thus leaped fogged him above Barry Holian and Ger Corcoran to snatch the Marrey Bikes yellow jersey as overall league winner.

This was Barry's second time missing out on the overall win, maybe next year he will be third time lucky.

The final round was a 15k time trial from Ballinrobe to Kilmaine and back.

On the night Padraig Marrey Western Lakes CC proved fastest winning by over 30 seconds, Dave Mac Dermott also Western Lakes was the most improved time trialist over the league when he improved his time by 1minute and 14 seconds.

How it was won.

This year’s ‘Mayo League’ format included 8 stages including 2 Hill Climbs, 2 Time Trials and 4 Road Races. In the spirit of good competition 6 stages were handicapped to allow for the different ability of cyclist to compete. In the first two stages however, points were scored based on the fastest times in the 5k Hill Climb on Lally’s Mountain in Tourmakeady and a 15k Individual Time Trial in Ballinrobe.

 In the road race stages there were 4 groups with the 1^st group getting up to 15mins of a head start on the scratch group over 60km route. Both the final Hill Climb and Time Trial had points for the fastest result on the night and bonus points for most improved in the final two stages.

The leaders yellow jersey changed hands 5 times, making for good competitive racing.

115 cyclists from 7 Mayo clubs took part in the 8 round which were spread around the county.

This year the league introduced the Team Classification Western Lakes won with a score of 1922pts from Westport Covey Wheelers 2nd 1725pts and Castlebar 3^rd 909pts

15k Time Trial results

1^st Padraig Marrey Western Lakes 20.32

2^nd Oliver Whyte Covey Westport 21.05

3^rd Ger Corcoran Covey Westport 21.19

4^th Barry Holian Western Lakes 21.26

5^th Con Doherty Covey Westport 21.40

6^th Michael Gilvarry Western Lakes 21.53

 Most Improved in TT

1^ST David Mac Dermott Western Lakes 1.114

2^nd Francis Sheridan Covey Westport 1.11

3^rd Sean O Malley Western Lakes 1.07

 Mayo League Overall after 8 rounds

Yellow jersey sponsored By Marrey Bikes Ballinrobe

1^st Keith O Connell Westport Covey 542pts

2^nd Ger Corcoran Westport Covey 530pts

3^rd Barry Holian Western Lakes 518pts

4^th Padraig Marrey Western Lakes 475pts

5^th Sean O Malley Western Lakes 469pts

6^th Colin Browne Covey Westport 410pts