A rainy and stormy Kanturk Three day event didnt Stop Midleton Ctc members Jonathon Finn and Shane Fuller posting impressive Performances.
Shane as you will read in his report below brushed off a nasty crash to maintain his position in the main bunch each day and looked really strong in the A3 group without placing. This was a war of attrition of a race so Shane did well to come through it mostly unscathed and will have Jonny for company in the A3 from now on.
Jonny Finn had a stormer of an event and showed he is way too strong for A4 and as a result will now move up to A3 in the next race.
Jonny Had two 3rds and an 8th on the road stages as well as a 2nd in the timetrial whihc delivered him an outstounding 2nd overall in the A4 Making him a top ten ranked A4 rider in the country.
Due to the huge amount of points jonny has racked in only two weeks he wil now move up to A3 to form a strong alliance with Shane.
Great work lads
Shane kindly wrote some thoughts below:
Stage 1 90+k hilly arrived in Kanturk at 1oc with it pissing down with rain , the race was delayed by a half hour till 4oc so I signed on and went for a warm up the rain had stopped for a bit , went to the start line and passed Jonny on the way but no time to chat , seen Leonard and Dominic at the start line but we were off before I even said Hi , The start was very fast with everyone trying to get in the top 20 or 30 to avoid any crashes that might happen ,I managed to do that for the first 7 or 8 k ,then before I knew it I was being spat towards the back as everyone knew the first climb was coming and ended I up in the last 3rd of the bunch going in to the first left hand corner and straight on to the climb which lasted about 3 1/2 km with about an average of 3 % but kicking up to about 6 or 7% I managed to stay with the bunch fairly handy with out to much of a bother , I was feeling pretty good and had moved back up the bunch on the decent, on a tight bend doing about 55kmph I was over the white line on the wrong side "as you do" a car coming towards us was looking a bit tight to squeeze passed but just managed when I heard a crack from behind ,first crash broken shoulder and jaw ,the bunch settled for a bit to let people get back on but after a couple of k the pace picked up again and we went on to an open wide road the rain was lashing down again and riders were dodging the cats eyes in the road when a wheel got clipped in front of me and down they came bikes and bodies everywhere, I looked for a gap but none appeared so went straight in to someone's back and over the handlebars with me and on to my back I stood up in a daze to see another 8 or nine rides come down behind me , Dominic was one of those he looked a bit shook but got back on his bike and off he went , I went and found my bike about 10m away ,small buckle in my front wheel opened up the break leavers a bit and off I went drafting behind a team car ,I passed Dominic at the side of the road , his handlebars were bent over to one side and I later found out he was in the first crash as well and sprained his wrist and on his bday an all , his race was over. The team car I was drafting fecked off to my disgust and I had to chase on my own but the bunch was gone got a group together but lost 20min + to the leader , Martin finished a few min behind the leaders and Leonard finished a few mins down on Martin Stage 2 TT 8k slight up hill Sunday morn I was finding it hard to walk after my crash on stage one but felt pretty good on the bike surprisingly, so did the TT in 13min 20sec, michael o'loughlin ( 17) won the stage with a 10min 10 sec (one to watch out for he was 8th last year in world junior TT and he is still a junior this year ) Stage 3 75k flat Sunday 15:30 This was a flat very fast stage but with no crashes I was pretty happy and sat in the bunch for the stage with a 41km average ,I was around with Leonard for the stage ,with both of us to fecked to go for the sprint we let them at it , Stage 4 95k ,hilly Monday morning This was another fast hilly stage with a final technical route through the Kanturk town centre and up 1k climb reaching 9%at some parts to the finish 4 laps , first lap I'm struggling bad for the first 10 k and quickly get a gel in to me and recover enough to make it over the finishing climb for the first time and off we go again legs hanging off at this stage, we come in along a main road for about 5k doing about 60 to 70kmph before turning left to Kanturk with a 5 k run in to the town I manage to make it over the 2nd time but I'm beginning to fade I get another gel into me , and I mange to hang in there for the next lap I haven't seen Leonard for awhile and was wondering had he climbed off or crashed ,but then there he was next to me he had got dropped on the second time up the climb and fair f$%ks to him for getting back on cause the pace was as fast as any race I've been in , both of us rode into the finish in the bunch Martin finished about 15th on the stage I recon , it was a weekend of hell and I loved every minute of it ,and to top it off Jonny had a great result in the A4 race placing on stage 1 coming in 2nd in the TT and 3rd overall ,well done again Jonny can't wait to have some company in A3
