All photo’s David Mc Veigh (BP Media Team) taken from the Women’s race’s in the Mc Cann Cup 2016 and the Phoenix GP 2019, report CU women’s commission, with thanks to both.

Following on from a successful road league in 2018 and 2019, the Cycling Ulster Women’s commission is back in 2020 with a racing league that offers something for everyone. The league this year combines road racing, time trialling and for 2020 introduces a series of closed-circuit racing being hosted at Nutts Corner.

The league begins with the Phoenix GP on the 8th March with a further three races in March. The series of races in March include the Haldane Memorial in Newry, the St Patricks day races hosted by North Pole in Donegal and the PJ Logan hosted by Island Wheelers in Tyrone. The dates for April and beyond will be announced shortly. It’s a busy first month which will help prepare the Ulster riders for the first of the Irish Intermediate Series and then the opening round of the National Series.

This year’s league retains the two-time trials and are indebted to the Ernie Magwood team who have made this easy for us. These events are scheduled for the 14th May and 6th September. The Women’s Commission is also working with the Youth Commission and Phoenix CC to host a summer series of closed-circuit racing at Nutts Corner. A number of these races will also offer league points – dates are still to be confirmed. We will have a full schedule of racing which will provide a worthy winner come September. Further announcements will follow in the coming weeks.

Clodagh Ní Ghallchóir (above) winning last years George Rooney Phoenix GP and received a small bursary from us to help with her travel to races abroad. The Belgian Project Media Team will support this league as much we can, as we have done for the last few years. In our bursary selection pool, we had only 2 girls who applied for such bursary in 2015, we had 12 in 2019!!