Damian Shaw an impressive winner of the See.Sense Tour of Ards

Damian Shaw (Team ASEA) came in nearly 3 minutes ahead of his nearest rival to emphatically win this year’s See.Sense Tour of Ards.

Damian Shaw (Team ASEA) solos to victory (above) and with the Tommy Brown trophy (right)

It was a cold day, with a biting south easterly wind coming off the sea, but the rain held off. A full field of 80 riders signed on, and the attacks started almost immediately. The field was still together at Ballywalter, but by Cloughy a group of 8 had managed to get away.

The sign says it all – race on along the Strangford lough coast!

The gap hovered around a minute for a long time, as chase groups tried to escape from the bunch. Up front, Damian attacked the break, and with his team mate Alastair Macauley policing the others the gap grew steady. The wind was on the riders’ backs as the race headed home to Newtownards, and Damian was uncatchable.

The break at Nunn’s Bridge

Last year’s winner Fraser Duncan tries to escape from the bunch at Saltwater Brig.

David Watson (from neighbouring club North Down CC) took the sprint for second from Craig Macauley (Roe Valley). It was encouraging to see Mark McKinley (Newry Wheelers) returning from illness to take 4th – he won’t remain a 3rd cat for long! Sean Featherstone (Newry Wheelers) and Alastair Macauley rounded out the remainder of the break.

The bunch finished just 41 seconds further back, with ever green vet Brian Stewart (Phoenix) taking the sprint from first junior Jake Gray (Nicholas Roche development squad) and first unplaced A3 Ryan Bankhead (Ballymena RC). It was encouraging to see five juniors in the top 20, and 3 of the Ards CC road squad finishing comfortably in the bunch. See below for the full result.

Commissaire’s briefing at the start

Dany interviews the winner

The race would not have been possible without the help of –

• Our sponsors – See.Sense and Roma’s
• The police, who once again did a great job smoothing the flow of the race through busy Saturday traffic
• The Ards CC organising committee, for doing all the legwork behind the scenes
• All the marshals, motorcycle marshals, judges and timekeeper.
• The Roads Services, for doing last minute repairs, and making sure all road works were cleared in time for the race.
• St John’s Ambulance, who were thankfully not called upon this year.
• David McVeigh and Dany Blondeel for extra reporting and photo – checkout out our Facebook site for more photos and videos later.
• The Belgian project and McConveys for the extra Junior prizes.
• Cycling Ulster for the radios.
• Tom Henry (North Down) for his entertaining commentary
• The Commissaires (both experienced, and new ones training for the future)
• St. Patricks, for allowing us to use their hall and car park.
• And most importantly, the ladies for a great spread of food afterward.

Post race analysis with the commissaires

The tea ladies did us proud :-)

Overall Results