Ed Clemens Wins Tour of the North 2016
Ed Clemens from Buckinghamshire is the final overall winner of the Tour of the North Cycle race supported by Ards and North Down Borough Council. The 22-year-old who races for the Spirt Bikes team finished safely in the 25 strong leading group at Craigantlet where Declan Mulholland (Asea Wheelworx) sprinted to his second stage win of the Tour.
Earlier in the 78 miles stage an eleven-man group established a lead of 2.5 minutes on the Killinchy based circuit which was lapped four times. The riders in this breakaway were of no threat to the overall leaders. Derek Finnegan (Keevan CC) won the first King of the Hills prime at Killinchy and Newry man Gareth McCullough took top points on laps 2 and 3 of the circuit. This moved him up to joint leader on road with Glenn Kinning (Kinning Cycles). On the return to Newtownards the yellow jersey and his Spirit Bikes team mates wound things up and the 11 leaders were caught at the foot of the Bradshaws Brae climb.
The peleton splintered in the last few miles to the finish line but the powerful Mulholland took the win by two bike lengths from Glen Kinning (Kinning Cycles) and David Watson (North Down CC). As this was a hill top finish Kinning earned three more points for the mountains competition to emerge as the final winner in this classification. Clements final time for the 257 miles was 10 hours 15 minutes 39 seconds. Jake Hales was second 1 minute 28 seconds behind with the defending champion David Watson (North Down CC) third at 1 minute 34 seconds and Mullholland fourth at 1’36”.
Peter Anderson (East Kilbride Road Club, Scotland) who won the Sunday afternoon stage 4 in Donaghadee was fifth with Derry man Ryan Reilly (Belgian Project) sixth.
Declan Mulholland (Asea Wheelworx) won the Under 23 category ahead of Ryan Reilly and Darnell Moore (Caldwell Cycles, Omagh). The mountains competition was won by Kinning (16 pts) from Gareth McCullough (Newry) 13 pts and Mullholland (10 pts). Best overall team was Asea Wheelworx with North Down second and the Dutch WTOS squad third.
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