Navan Road Club to host Sean Nolan Grand Prix

Navan Road Club will host the Sean Nolan Meath Grand Prix at Navan on Sunday. The senior A1, A2 races will cover four-laps of the Slane, Woodtown, Wilkinstown, Kilberry course, with the finish located close to Simonstown GAA grounds. One rider who will be absent from the start line will be last year's runner-up Colin Robinson from Stamullen M Donnelly. His season has been dramatically reduced following a crash when he hit a pothole while training in preparation for the Ras. With the All-Ireland Senior Road Race Championships in three weeks time at Scotstown in Monaghan, there will be riders from all provinces out to test their stamina in Navan on Sunday. And of course the competitors will set out in search of glory in this very prominent cycling event. Cyclists such as Martyn Irvine and David McCann both with the Giant Asia team are expected to feature prominently. Both enjoyed stage wins in the recent An Post Ras, the only Irishmen to achieve the feat. Others with their eyes on the generous prize list will be Mark Dowling and Stephen O'Sullivan from the Dunboyne Dectek team. Dowling and O'Sullivan also competed well in the Ras. Proceedings open in Navan on Sunday with the youth races, 11.0 over a local circuit close to the Ardboyne Hotel. The senior races get underway at 1.0, from Blackcastle, Slane road. The sign-on for all races will be at the Navan Rugby Club, 10.0, On Thursday night McNally Swords CC will promote the Kathleen O'Sullivan Memorial Cycle Race, starting out from Ballyboughal, 7.0. This race will be open to all senior category riders. Last Sunday at Ballyboughal in the McNally Swords GP, Neil Delahaye from the Dunboyne Dectek team scored a fine victory in the 120km race, beating Conor McAllister from the Slane Cycles CC in Belfast. Elsewhere over the weekend, Ciaran Campbell from Drogheda Wheelers finished third in the u-16 event at Longford on Saturday. Navan Road Club members Simon O'Dea, John Kenny and James Lynch were back in top form for Navan Road Club at A3 level in the Swords Grand Prix. O'Dea was back after a painful shoulder injury which put him out of action for a number of weeks. Despite this setback he stayed with the bunch throughout. Lynch once again had a good round, Kenny, recently moved up to A3, made remarkable improvements in the early part of the cycling calendar and he achieved a well-earned first place at Swords. Kenny pushed on early and worked hard in the lead group for much of the route over some drags making this a challenging course. Kenny crossed the line alone earning him his first win at A3 level.