Lucan GP

Raffaele Bonadio took a fine win at the Lucan GP and earned his upgrade to A3. Ronan Foley took 3rd leaving him needing 2 more points for his upgrade to A3. Colin Caeser and Alan Hickey completed their first open races both finishing in the top 20. Bonadio and Foley recount the race:

Raffaele Bonadio

It was 8 of us in the A4 Lucan GP on Sunday. Flat course with a slightly uphill finish line. The race was mostly controlled by Scott-Orwell Wheelers, John being very active on making some very strong accelerations, Ken, Kilian and Colin keeping the speed high every time someone was to trying to breakaway.

Nothing really happened till the last few kilometers, except for a few weak attempts.

Last lap was a little bit nervous, people trying to stay at the front. I felt a few times someone touching my rear wheel (fortunately I am heavy enough... did not have any problem with it!).

For the whole race I tried to recognize who is in good condition and who is not, who could be a good wheel to keep and who is not, and try to understand if a team would have organized something at the end. I choose a wheel, tall strong guy, "he could cover me enough from the wind at the end", I said to myself. Around the last 6 km a guy from TCD showed me he wanted to keep that wheel and take my position, I said no.

People around me were nervous, I was too. Too many times "brave" cyclists changing direction suddenly, too much screaming, too much mess. Wind was coming from head-left, so I tried to keep right; road was very large on the finish line, good. Last 2.5km, a guy tries an acceleration, he's alone there with an advantage of 30 meters. I decide to wait, it is not a good moment. After the roundabout Kilian and Colin are at the head of the bunch pushing hard, they are doing a very good job, noone's able to overtake. I am around the 10th positon, maybe more; I see the finish line far there, so it's still long to go. "keep the hearth rate low, and follow that wheel."

When I realize I am close enough to the line, I push. I am not sure I could remember what happened after, I was just pushing. And Ronan took third, great job!

Thanks to all the Orwell, especially Ken, Kilian, John, Colin, Richard, Alan, Ronan and Stephen for advises and support. It was a great team victory!


Raffaele Bonadio takes victory (photo with thanks to Stephen O'Shea)

Ronan Foley

I woke up feeling lousy on race day with the start of a chest infection, and was already making excuses to myself as I drove to Dunsany. Got signed in and warmed up. There were a good few Orwell faces at the start line, which always helps with pre-race jitters. I had no idea really where I was at fitness-wise, so decided to sit in and see how I felt. The legs were a bit dead for the first couple of laps but began to come around during the last lap. I'm familiar with the run-in having started the sprint much too early in this race 3 years ago, so once we came through the final roundabout I gambled that others would be tempted to open it up early. I dropped back slightly and moved out to the right to get a bit of room. With about 250m to go, I kept an eye out for a good wheel and followed an Adamstown rider flying up on the outside. I fell in behind him for 150m, and could see Raffaele well out in front. I tried to get around the Adamstown rider but left it too late to get an Orwell 1-2! Delighted with 3rd place though and looking forward to the next race.


Ronan Foley takes an excellent third place (photo with thanks to Stephen O'Shea)

A4 Race (66km)

1 Rafaela Bonadio       Scott-Orwell Wheelers 
2 Mark O'Brien Arcane
3 Ronan Foley Scott-Orwell Wheelers