Sunday the 13th Saw the EQ16 Sportive take place including the unique team trial in Midleton in aid of Culann wants to walk.
The event off with out a hitch and was blessed with great weather and a fantastic turn out.
Mctc was well represented in both the sportive and in the Team Trial event, where we had 4 teams.
The Green group ladies got to together with a bakers dozen to get in the spirit of things and represented the club brilliantly bringing home the Ladies prize for the team trial.
There are a lot of clubs in cork with women involved but only Mctc managed to put a team together for this event showing how well the womens section is growing within the club, in the end we could have almost fielded two teams such was the enthusiasm from the ladies to represent the club.
Big well done to you all girls, showing the rest of Cork that Midleton is the place to be for ladies cycling going forward. We hope to have a small video of their day soon.
In the mens team three teams kitted out the first led by the M50 National Hill climbing Champion Aj Murphy. The lads came second only 50 seconds behind an extremly strong Blarney team which consisted of riders from their A2 racing section. The result was still a fine achievement and demonstration of excellent pacing with the guys fininshing around a minute a head of their targeted time. A great display of team work and control on what is a daunting course for a team time trial.
Our second team was put together by Brendan Hennessey and Promoted his ever popular Old velos event. Riding some beatuiful vintage bikes the lads put in a great spin to finish towards the top of the standings, even with a bike change mid race. The course as we all know is a tough day out so it shows the great effort this put put in. Well done guys
The third mens team put together by John Shanahan had a less than succesful day after two puntures just after Killeagh and another at Dungorney put pay to a good result. In fairnes the lads had been flying with a respectable 35kmph average to killeagh before the first blow out and even had the same split time as Aj's team for the decent from the Youghal to Tallow strava segment. The fearlessness of Gary Neff and John Shanahan on the tandem on the decents is truly a thing to behold and it was a pleasure to ride with them and the other lads for the day. Unfortunaltey we are all Camera shy so no pic of us :-).
The day itself was a great success and lets hope the money raised will go a long way to hitting the target for Culann's target.
Well done to Derek Whyte and Phil Cunningham for a perfectly executed event.
For those that wish to donate please visit http://culannwantstowalk.com
