Karl Donnelly of the Irish Road Club-AMEV team was out on his own in the Hamper Race at Carrick-on-Suir yesterday with local favourite Sean Kelly relegated to sixth place at the finish in Sean Kelly Square.
A total of 107 signed on and Donnelly broke away when the racing started after the opening 20-mile tour. National champion Morgan Fox was with Donnelly but soon dropped back and Donnelly was over a minute ahead, after the first of three laps of five miles.
Starting the final phase of 10 times around a half-mile circuit in Carrick, Donnelly's lead was down to 30 seconds on Ciaran Power and David Hayes. The chasers were joined by Brian Kenneally with Kelly, Paul Butler and Raymond Clarke heading the pursuit.
Towards the end Donnelly pulled away again and won by 40 seconds from Power with Hayes third and after Kenneally had skidded on the last corner, the judges placed his club-mate Diarmuid Carew fourth. In the sprint for fifth place John Blackwell got up to pip Kelly but the honours and the hamper clearly went to Donnelly.
Robin Seymour continued on his winning way in the cyclo-cross championship at Craigavon on Saturday when he took the title for the seventh time in a row.
After 10 laps of a testing, muddy course of just over a mile, which included two steep slippery banks that had to be negotiated on foot each time, Seymour took over an hour and two minutes of all-out effort to finish. It could not be regarded as an easy win for him but it certainly was convincing.
At the end Seymour was three minutes and 15 seconds ahead of the man he expected to be his closest rival, Craig Brady, with Aidan McDonald third at 7:36.
Seymour began lapping the tailenders on the third time around. Brady and McDonald were the only ones not lapped by Seymour and when the chequered flag was out for him, McDonald was getting the bell for his last lap.
Seymour was in front from the start and Brady held second place throughout but the gap between them widened all the way as Seymour changed four times on to a spare bike cleaned by his father. McDonald had a hard battle before he forged ahead of Robert Lamont and Barry Monaghan to clinch the bronze medal place.
