Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better in this incredible season for UCD Cycling, the club enjoyed another successful weekend in the Mullingar 2 Day event.

On stage 1 Gavin O'Halloran and Ciaran O'Conluain sat back in the main race watching Colm Cassidy destroy himself trying to get up the road to no avail. Half way through the 115km race Gav moved up the bunch and on his first attack of the day he jumped into the winning 15 man break getting 10th on the stage and gaining over 2 mins to the next group on the road which Colm worked tirelessly to get into. With no General Classification results that night it was difficult to decide how to approach things but the time trial cleared it up and Gav was lying in 6th place after it. His highest position on a A1/2 stage race and something that the team wanted to help him preserve.

The tactic was for Ciaran to protect and help Gav and for Colm to go up the road which he did on lap 2 of 5 and stayed there till the finish, never to see the bunch again. Sadly Colm was very unlucky that the super strong Aaron Buggle broke loose of the bunch on the last lap and made it across with overall winner Ryan Sherlock to catch Colm 1km from the line and out do him in the sprint with UCD's finest Colm Cassidy getting a brilliant 2nd place on the final stage. Gav came in safely up the bunch and finished a fantastic 7th overall with only one rider gaining a second on him.

In the second race of the weekend, defending champion Ian Richardson was the hot favourite even though he hasn't raced many open races recently. He and Rob Manning were caught in a crash in the last 500m on stage 1 but all were given the same time. This meant it was all to play for going into the morning time trail  and Ian Richardson stunned the cycling world by recording the 2nd fastest time, not in the C race but in the whole competition beating time trial greats Arron Buggle and Colm Cassidy in the process.

This gave him a comfortable 22seconds lead over his A3 rivals but even with the help of Rob he wasnt able to repeat last years feat and finished a creditable 7th overall and 1st in the A3 time trial. Defending a yellow jersey with one team mate is a near impossible thing with both jerseys changing hands on the last stage in the top 2 races here.

In the Ladies race Niamh Stephens, had a fantastic weekend with a 4th and 3rd in stage’s 1 and 3, which secured her an overall General Classification position of 3^rd

To top things off UCD won the main races Team prize and the list of prizes for the weekend is below.

1) Stage 1 4th Ladies race Niamh

2) Stage 2 4th in TT Colm

3) Stage 2 1st in TT Ian

4) Stage 3 2nd on stage Colm

5) Stage 3 3rd Ladies race Niamh

6) Overall 7th Gavin

7) Overall A3 race 7th Ian

8)Overall 3rd Ladies Race Niamh

9) Overall Team prize winners UCD

Its great to see all the hard work paying off and we could have had even more rewards if Ian had some more support in the A3 race in what would have topped off the weekends results. Onwards to Carlow this weekend with more silverware in the sights of the UCD riders before the big stage races of Suir Valley and Ballinrobe In August. Many thanks must finally go to Mil and the club for their support in allowing us to stay down there and get the best preparation for the race. Jasons help on the Saturday was invaluable and he is as equally deserving of the team prize as the riders are.