Ulster Provincial Championships

The Ulster Provincial Championships took place near Armagh City, on a rolling 134k course, a real end of season test for the riders.

Orwell had 2 men in contention for the medals, with Luke and Sean being on homeground. With a small bunch, the name of the game was getting ahead early with not many people wanting to close gaps for others. Luke and Sean were jumping with moves from the gun, as a strong crosswind put the group in the gutter. As the road turned, Sean jumped across to Lindsay Watson up the road and the 2 joined forces with a third to create a strong group that immediately began cooperating. Behind Gareth O’Neill launched a bomba with Ciaran Maguire and Cathir Doyle, with Luke being caught out too close to the front. The group in front was immediately working well and the gap quickly rose to a minute. It held there for the following 3 laps, with Sean and Luke rolling through in their respective groups. With a lap and a half to go, infighting began between the Doneguese (people from Donegal) in the group behind and the group began to splinter as attacks began. Luke was caught behind as 3 men went up the road, as the race split to pieces.

Up front, after nearly doing a Waller Cup 2025 repeat (iykyk), Sean had start applying pressure to the group on the final lap. Quickly, it became a group of 4 with Sean, Maguire, O’Neill and Watson proving the strongest. For the last half lap, it was a constant sequence of 30/30s, with Sean and O’Neill being the aggressors, with the wind only making proceedings even harder. The group constantly fractured and came back together, with the gaps stretching that bit more each time. With 3k to go, Sean attacked for what was probably the 50th time, and had immediate separation. O’Neill bridged but was subsequently ridden off the wheel on an uphill drag. Maguire was closing more progressively, as he had kept fuel in the tank. When Maguire caught O’Neill, there was a brief let up in the group which Sean saw, and he started to believe he could hold this to the line. Maguire though was not letting anything get away and went back to the front, pacing Watson and O’Neill back to Sean. Just as Sean got caught, O’Neill rose from the dead like a pheonix and launched a bomba on the final drag with still a kilometre to go. Maguire kept closing progressively and launched his sprint, gapping Watson and Sean off his wheel, but launched too late with O’Neill going from dead and buried to the champ in the space of a minute. Sean had a late surge to pip Watson to the line, gaining his first provincial medal, and continuing his fine run of form. Behind Luke rolled in just inside the top 10, on what was a gruelling day out for all involved.