West Suffolk Wheelers’ Alan Trolove represented British Cycling’s Eastern Region in the Youth Tour of Mayo in Eire last weekend. The event for all Youth categories comprised four stages over three days, including two road stages, a time trial and a closed road Criterium, all run on an aggregate time basis, with awards for teams, individual stage winners, king of the mountains, points winner and General Classification overall.

The U16 event comprised over sixty riders including teams representing Ireland, Scotland, Isle of Man, numerous clubs and with riders from Germany and Belgium.

The opening 60 kilometre road stage ended in a bunch sprint behind Scottish rider Tom Arnstein who attacked with 500m to go and stayed in front. Alan Trolove put his effort in at the 250m point, and amazingly secured second place ~ having previously been thought of as lacking a sprint finish!!

Stage two was a 4k Time Trial and Alan was disappointed with 24^th, 38 seconds off the leader, but his team mates were all well placed, and the team took the overall lead.

The next road stage saw another bunch finish comprising 30 riders with all the Eastern Region riders involved, gaining further points, and retaining their overall lead over the Irish team by just 7 seconds.

The final stage took place on Monday and was a fast and furious 40 minute Criterium, which culminated in fifteen riders in with a shout at the end, comprising most of the riders of the top placed teams. The Eastern Region riders excelled themselves by securing four of the top ten places, with Alan a creditable sixth, and resulted in an overall win for the BC Eastern Region, beating the favoured Irish Team, with Scotland and Isle of Man close behind.

The winning team comprised Tao Hart, who was second overall, Norwich’s Josh Hannan, Dan Young and Alan, who still has another year in this age category.

Full results on www.irishcycling.com