BARRY WHELAN of Les Jeunes won the Coombes Connor memorial race yesterday at Drogheda, while Robin Seymour emphasised his superiority on the mountain bike scene with a decisive success in the first event of the season at the Phoenix Park.
The Drogheda Wheelers promotion was over seven laps of a circuit through Duleek and out onto the Ashbourne Slane road. At the end of the 77 miles, Whelan won by 16 seconds. On the last lap, a breakaway group split and Whelan finished strongest for his first win of the year. David Peelo was second ahead of Ken Norgrove. PJ Moriarty was best in the sprint for fourth place, another 39 seconds in arrears.
Seymour was out on his own in the mountain bike race at the Phoenix Park. As Alastair Martin and Richie McCauley did not take part. It was left to John Pennyfather to chase Seymour home. However, at the end of seven laps and after 18 miles, the gap was four minutes and six seconds with Dave Maher third at 12:37.
Seymour was 35 seconds ahead of Joe McCall after the first circuit and he continued to pull away. A puncture ended McCall's interest after three laps. Although Seymour was able to negotiate most of the technical course on his bike he was troubled by a cramp from running on some of the uneven, slippery stretches.
On Saturday, Keith Ban non had another win in the Mid Eastern Region's league race when he beat his Bray clubmate Stephen O'Sullivan at the finish after 10 laps of a circuit of almost five miles behind Dublin airport. As Willie Byrne did not earn any points Bannon took over the overall lead.
. Italy's Gabriele Colombo won the Milan San Remo race, the first classic of the professional season, on Saturday. The 23 year old winner crossed the line a few metres ahead of Ukraine's Alexandre Gontchenkov, Italy's Michele Coppolillo and Britain's Italian born Maximilian Sciandri.
Colombo attacked with the three others about 20km from the finish and made his break for victory in the last two kilometres. The main pack finished 30 seconds behind.
