Newry 3-Day Race Report

A perfect team performance plus some forceful riding from all three boys in the hills gave the Academy the overall win here for the third time in three years. Harry Howlett took two stage wins and the overall to succeed Charlie Genner and Piers Mahn in the Halesowen roll of honour here, with Luke Mannings ending up 3^rd overall and King of the Mountains, while Dan Ascroft finished 11^th. The trio also won the team prize by a significant margin.

Stage one’s 36-mile dash, however, didn’t go quite to plan, with a dangerous six-man move going clear on the dual carriageway between Newry and Warrenpoint to finish over a minute clear. The break included veteran Paul Kennedy, who has won 11 races this season, stage winner Bryan McCrystal, Cathir Doyle and Ronan Killeen; sensing the danger, Luke attempted to bridge with Newry’s Mark McKinley but to no avail, so it was over to chasing duty to limit their losses.

Stage two over 69.5 miles was very different, with the four climbs of the 10% “wall” into the town of Rathfriland. The tactic was simple: attack and push riders up the road. So Luke went clear early on in a six-rider move, took the hill prime in Rathfriland the first time, and coming into Rathfriland for the second time went clear with local rider Gareth McCullough to take the next two hill primes, putting himself in the Mountains jersey. Behind, Harry was marking McCrystal and Kennedy when they made their counter-move, and once up to Luke and the remains of the front break, it was time to think of the stage finish; Kennedy’s Burren CC team mate Mark Shannon went clear, but Luke threw his final strength into keeping him within reach, and then Harry finished the job, overtaking Shannon about 25 metres before the line.

That all placed Harry in fourth overall behind Kennedy, Ronan Killeen of Lucan CRC and McCrystal, with Luke in 7^th, and Dan moving up to 12^th after controlling the bunch behind the lead groups.

Stage 3 was different in its structure, backloaded with three tough climbs and the lengthy ascent to the dam at Spelga. This time it was Dan off the front in the early move, with Luke’s main rival for the mountains, Cathir Doyle also in there; this time Luke and Harry made the counter from behind, bridging before the climbs began, while Kennedy was having mechanical issues which eventually ruled him out of the overall fight.

The first task was for Luke to consolidate his lead in the KoM, which he did by taking both the Reed Hall and Elm Hall climbs from Doyle, after which Dan and then Luke worked hard to deliver Harry for the stage win, with Luke peeling off partway up the claim, and Harry going ahead to take his second stage win, with Doyle and McCrystal chasing behind. At the line Harry had the win by 59sec which was enough to give him the overall from McCrystal by 2sec, while Luke ran in 4^th at 1-31, having done enough to keep the polka-dot jersey, and Dan ended up 7^th, moving up a place to 11^th overall.

Photos: Belgian Project