Newbridge GP report by Brendan Lawless

The Newbridge GP A3 race on a March Sunday morning. Damp roads, an undulating course with two main hills. I was feeling anxious and grumpy; anxious because of the big crash at the Cycleways Cup last week and the sense that my luck might be running out, grumpy because work has been hard lately and my house is a tip and it took me ages to find my cycling shorts. I was the only Orwell man in my classification, Michelle Geoghegan was there but unfortunately had a mechanical half way and I did not see her again. Nevertheless good to have a nod and a smile from somebody in the peloton wearing the same jersey. As the race rolled out I was finding it hard to motivate myself, but the legs somehow knew better that offer their usual running commentary of insufferable pain.

There was an interesting development as we went into the final lap - way up ahead I could see the A2 peloton which was being caught by the A3 race. I slipped into 2nd place in the A3 peloton, with a pair of A3 riders 100m ahead on a flat section attempting to bridge to another pair slightly further up the road on the attack. Some dunderhead behind yelled "Will yis roide if yis are at the front for fooks sake" and on a whim I put the foot down and with another lad from St Tiernan's bridged over. We caught up with the A2 race and went straight around, and I realised this was it! The bunch was going to get all confused and broken passing the A2 slow coaches, and we had a clear road ahead. There were now four of us, working well together, up and over, we had also picked up a young A2 lad who did not seem to know the rules and was joining in with our group, until the motorbike race warden started yelling at him (and us for some reason - it's not as if we had issued him a formal invitation). We were coming to the last hill, and the remaining of the original leading two was weakening and slowing. So there were four now: Drogheda (well done to him for getting in on the action from a good deal further back), St Tiernan's, the fetching blue of Laois, and Orwell. Looking at the competition I fancied a sprint, only the big Man of Laois looked like a powerhouse, but this powerhouse was on his knees after the hill and I was feeling surprisingly chipper. Up and over, no time for games here and everyone knew it, I took my last turn at the front with 1km to go, and on the approach Drogheda obliged with an early sprint and a wheel that I was able to spin onto, up a couple of gears and gripping the bars now, then the Man of Laois offered me a wheel as Drogheda faded, to 100m where with a powder keg in there still dry I had plenty of acceleration to get my gap and roll over the line in first place and on into A2 racing.

 
Brendan Lawless has the time to celebrate victory (photo thanks to Sean Rowe)

While waiting for the cup (a weighty item - I will consider melting down and retiring on the proceeds) I was chatting to Ronan O' Flynn who got a smashing 5th place in the A2 race, and I checked the results from Ras Maigh Eo, terrific performances there, and congratulations to Valdis, Steve, Brian and all the Orwell team that were our there this fine weekend.

 
Brendan Lawless and Ronan O'Flynn (photo thanks to Aishling O'Connor)