International Junior Tour of Ireland

News:

2009 International Junior Tour of Ireland

Segers Wins Final Stage, Bailey Takes Overall

BCF West Midlands have long been great supporters of the Martin Donnelly Junior Tour and after six stages and excellent racing provided by the young men of the future.

Unfortunately for the two principal teams involved in this the 32nd of the race there could be only one outright winner.

So, Matt Bailey who incidentally is a great supporter of West Bromwich Albion by virtue of the best accumulative time edged out Louis Meinjtes of the South African team.

They may not have won the individual time trial on the opening stage of the 'tour' which went to Dominic Schils of Lott Olympia Interbike. Matt and Louis were separated by 7 seconds which in the end was the margin which gave Matt the honour of taking glory in this unique 'tour.'

Louis did win the second stage but Matt was right on his tail and by virtue of the days stage went into yellow which was short lived on day three with Charles Prendergast lifting the Irish team into the golden fleece.

Unforunately Charles surrendered the jersey on day four with the stage to Ballycastle laying the marker for Bailey to move back into yellow with Louis still on his tail.

The penultimate day was all set up with two ascents of the Windy Gap which was sure to ruffle the feathers. South Africa was all in place to launch their attack, but nobody but nobody had read the script when Bailey's team mate Perry Bowater went ahead on the first ascent which played right into hands of all the BCF team.

Perry went on to win the stage with Matt and Louis having their own private battle to contend with. Matt just stuck like glue to Louis's rear wheel and in the end they crossed the line fractionally apart which more or less decided the outcome of the race overall.

Baily and team relax before stage

The final stage was run off at a fast pace and left the main contenders as of Saturday night retaining their positions on the general classification standings.

The only descisive breakaway was when four riders went clear at around the 40km mark, they opened the gap to nearly one minute but none of the them were within three minutes of the jersey

South Africa for the first time came within touching distance of overall victory, but surely on this performance their time will come. At least they are going home with prizes a plenty courtesy of the first year junior Meintjes who'll be back next year to win. "They'll roar like the South African rugby team did recently. At least they'll have some silverware with the overall team prize ahead of the 21 teams who participated in this great event.

Matt Bailey and his team, BCF West Midlands made a clean sweep of all the major prizes on offer in Martin Donnely Junior Tour which finished in Castlebar yesterday after six stages. He was the overall winner plus the points and 1st year junior category plus his team colleague Perry Bowater added the icing to the cake with the mountains category prize.

Bailey had 7 second to spare over runner up Louis Meintjes of South Africa with local hope and favourite for the event Charles Prendergast back in third spot. Matt a supporter of West Bromich Albion said "I am over the moon with this success. It lays the foundation for me as I have ambitions to be a professional cyclist. In recent years anybody who has won the 'tour' has gone on to be a professional. For the moment I'll enjoy the backslapping, but next year I'll be back to defend the title. I notice from the trophy nobody has ever won it twice," said Matt. The winner of the final stage was Joren Segers from Belguim.

Stage 6, came down to a bunch finish in the outskirts of Castlebar

http://www.juniortourofireland.com/images/uploads/jt09-stage_6_final_results.pdf

Martin Donnelly Junior Tour, stage 6
Castlebar/Crossmolina/Castlebar, 91kms.

Details:

1 J. Segers (Hand in Hand Baal), 2hrs.13mins.47secs;
2 P. Williams (Ireland Stena), same time;
3 D. Schils (Lotto Olympic Interbike), st;
4 R. Wennekes (WV Eemland/Holland), st;
5 J. Hales (Lotto Olympic Interbike), st;
6 J. van Gesselleen (South Africa), st:
7 S. Doona (Irish development Squad), st;
8 T. Opdam, (Tempo Veldhoven), st.

Final overall after six stages.

M. Bailey (BCF West Midlands), 14.04.47;
L. Meintjes (South Africa), @7 secs;
3 C. Charles (Stena Ireland), @49;
4 P. Bowater (BCF West Midlands), @1.05.
5 L. Brooking (North of England), @1.14;
6 Schils, @2.18;
7 R. de Greef (Tempo Veldhoven), @2.18;
8 Segers, @3.12

Overall/Points/1st Year Junior jerseys: Bailey.
Mountains: Bowater.
Team: South Africa.