Dan Whiting's whistle stop tour of the CI open race categories continues apace following his instant upgrade to A2 in the Mullingar two-day last weekend.

Two stage wins and fourth overall produced an avalanche of points for the racing novice who took the plunge into open racing at the start of the year and shows no signs of having reached a plateau of improvement.

Having soloed in four seconds clear of the 70 strong bunch for victory in the first road stage of the A3 race, Dan outsprinted breakaway companions Brian O'Donnell and Laurent Dumoulin to take the third stage which elevated him to fourth overall, securing his second cat status in one fell swoop.

Having recently finished eighth, and second counting rider in Orwell's Leinster A3 Championship winning team, Dan is racking up the prizes and is already making plans for his stage race debut among Ireland's top riders in the Suir Valley 3-Day on August Bank Holiday Weekend.

In the women's event on the same Mullingar programme Sinead McBreen led home the B group which stayed clear of the A riders to take victory in the first stage and with it the early GC lead which she maintained with an excellent sixth place in the time trial.

McBreen missed out on overall success by 12 seconds when a small group including Margaret Donnelly raced clear on the final stage but enhanced her reputation as a doughty racer throughout the weekend.

There was plenty of Orwell representation in the final results with McBreen second, Margaret Donnelly fifth, Jeni O'Regan, sixth, Patricia Buckley seventh and Ania Krol eighth.

Peter Gerrard took a fine second place finish in the final stage of the A4 stage race in Mullingar while Liam Rowsome's excellent sixth place in the stage two time trial translated to seventh overall in the final standings.

Meanwhile at Sundrive Road, Stephen McNally and Orla Hendron were in the medals in the IVCA Track Championships.

McNally shared gold and a new vets national record with Lucan's Brendan Whelan in the age 40-49 500 metre time trial.

An expected win in the pursuit by a margin of more than 13 seconds was a precursor to an impressive two-nil win over Whelan in the Sprint to make it three gold medals for the weekend.

Not to be outdone, Orwell's track masters world champion Orla Hendronl raced among the men in the 50-59 category, scooping bronze medals in the 2km pursuit and the scratch race.

Further afield, Naoise Sheridan took third place in all three stages of the Arklow Youth 2-Day which meant third overall and first girl in the Under 12 category.