Dynamic duo are all smiles on Irish tour

12:00pm Thursday 17th July 2008

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WYRE Forest CC development squad riders Dominic Jelfs and Jack Kirk made an impact in the Junior Tour of Ireland last week.

Jelfs showed his ability by finishing fourth after a gruelling week of stage riding in Ireland.

The first stage was a two-kilometre mountain time trial with the distance being too short to make any real impact.

But both Wyre Forest riders came to the fore in the second stage, which was a 68-mile road race on a circular course, starting and finishing in Westport.

Jelfs was in superb form and won the stage, followed in third place by Kirk.

In stage three, which was a 70 mile race, the duo also maintained their high standards.

Jelfs finished the course in seventh place and was only 29 seconds behind the winner, while Kirk was 19th.

Stage four took the duo through a 107km course in County Mayo, with Kirk coming 14th and Jelfs just behind in 15th.

Stage five proved to be another tough 107km race with a mountain top finish and Jelfs came second to ensure he cemented fourth place in the overall standings, while Kirk was a minute behind in 14th, which was enough to ensured 18th place in the tour.

The final stage finished in a bunch sprint after 101km of fast racing, with Jelfs finishing safely in the bunch to confirm his fourth place andcoming 48 seconds behind overall winner Sam Bennett, from Stena Ireland, in a time of 14 hours 38 minute and 29 seconds n Dave Barnes was in impressive form to take a fine victory in the Walsall RCC 25m time trial on Sunday.

In wet and windy conditions, Barnes stormed around the Burton-on-Trent course to win with a time of 52-51. Despite unshipping his chain, he still managed to win with a margin of 1-30 over the second-placed rider.

Wyre Forest took the team prize with good rides by Carl Heitman (58-22) and Dave Wood (1-00-23).

Lorenzo Buratti was in good form to take victory in the latest round of the club events competition at Warndon on Tuesday evening.

Buratti completed the 10m course in a time of 23-29, followed in second by Jon Howard (24-20) and Mark Corbett (24-28) in third.

Dave Wood (25-15), Joe Rowe (25-22), Brian Clarke (26-50), Alan Taylor (26-59), Karl Davies (27-11), John Smith (27-13), Phil Hunt (27-29), Ruth Finney (28-00), Ian Wall (30-10), Louise Rotheram (31-01), Alex Hamer (31-46), Adrian Kraemer (32-17) and Norbert Wysocki 33-12 also performed well and set good times.

Anyone interested in more details about the club can go to www.wfcrc.org.uk