Peter Doyle (Bray Wheeler) made a very popular and triumphant return Irish cycling on Sunday when be brilliantly outrode a class field of 100 riders win the  Woodcock Trophy in the Phoenix Park, with Harry Dawson and Shay Kelly backing up well to give Bray a great team win.

This opening event of the Irish Cycling Federations season attracted the top wheel men from four provinces, and was a severe test for Doyle, who knew he would be marked very closely, with the strong Tailteann, the danger team, and a large Northern contingent already racing fit.

However Doyle decided to go from the line, and he and Teggart (Banbridge) and Johnston (Cyprus) set a furious pace over the early laps, completely shattering a huge field. After 10 miles only those strong enough to stay the pace early on survived in a bunch of a dozen who forged ahead.

BRAY TACTICS

The Bray tactics had worked beautifully, although the break included big names like  Liam Horner, Pat Claxton. John Mc-Carthy (Dublin), Paddy Flanagan (Kildare), Jack Johnson (Belfast), Noel Tessart and Noel Gallagher (Banbridge), Bray had successfully disposed of Terry  Colbert and Tailteann team and had Peter Doyle, Harry Dawson and new senior rider Shay Kelly in the leading bunch.

Steadily they increased their lead to over 3.5 minutes after 50 miles. The last lap saw some tremendous riding. Doyle turned on the pressure to flash over the line, a great winner with team-mates, Dawson and Kelly, taking the team easily.

Bray Wheelers were last night presented with a cheque for £200 by Wimpy Ltd, Dublin, and they also got a hint of taking part in international club competition. Wheelers will use most of the money on their new clubhouse.

And Wimpy, whose organisation is based in twenty-six countries, told them that if they win the team event in this year's Tour of Ireland, it could mean travelling into Europe to take part in competitions.

Wimpy is considering sponsoring such events in Ireland and abroad, with the losing company paying the expenses.

PAUL ELLIOTT swept to a magnificent victory in the Raleigh-Dunlop Tour of Ireland race which finished in the Phoenix Park yesterday. But the 29-year-old Bray Wheelers rider, who had to be persuaded to return to the sport this season after a lapse of five years, had to survive the last one bit of pressure in the final 30 miles circuit race before making absolutely sure.

His Bray colleagues had successfully killed off the last desperate efforts of Elliott's closest rivals in general classification when he punctured on the last lap, a mile from the finish. But in an instant he was on his club mate Jimmy Doyle's bike — and the race was won.

Afterwards Elliott, who had maintained his 2 minutes, 32 seconds lead on second placed man Bob Crayford (South London), told me afterwards,

“I feel very relieved that it is all over. I gave up cycling five years ago because of lack of competition and I lost interest. But Bray Wheelers asked me to make a comeback and I started training again last winter.”

But Elliott's comeback nearly failed when he crashed in the World championships in Leicester a fortnight ago. He smashed up his bike and was contemplating pulling out of the tour. But his brother Shay gave him a bike — and he was back in business.

Yesterday's two stages followed the pattern of the previous day with Bray Wheelers and Elliott riding with tremendous power to cut off all attacks.

Rode Strongly

In the morning 85 miles . battle into the wind from Monaghan to the Phoenix Park they rode strongly to the front of the bunch, burning off any attempts to make up time on the leader. Finally, five miles from the finish, they allowed Phil Marrows (West Yorkshire), who was completely out of the reckoning, away, and he won the stage in a time of 3 hours, 34 minutes and 33 seconds. The bunch came in 11 seconds down,

The circuit race made little difference, once Elliott stayed on his bike, Crayford or third placed Noel Gallagher (Four Provinces) would have had to lap Elliott on the two miles circuit to beat him and that was just not possible. Yet they “still refused to throw in. the towel, but they just could not break the stranglehold Bray had on the race,

 This section was won by Wolfgang Trott, of the. West of ‘the four man German team German regional team. So each “had won a stage, Trott's time was 1 hour, 8 minutes, 27 seconds. He had come away with a group of some ten riders who were out of contention and they finally wound up with a 13 seconds advantage over the bunch. But with the top men imprisoned at the back there could be no change.

So, Elliott became winner after one of the toughest stage races seen here. The lead had switched continuously in the early part of this 900 miles event but then Elliott and Bray struck just at the right moment.

 That was on Friday in the gruelling stage around the Innishowen peninsula. Their manager Peter Crinnion ordered an all-out assault and it was so effective that it brought the rest of the field to their knees. They struck when it hurt most and there was little time for anyone to hit back.

As Elliott said, “We knew we could win the race that day. It was a matter of having to attack or all would be lost.” It all ended Peter Doyle's chance and he wound up in 21st place.

But the pre race favourite was the last to complain.

Brakes On

In this event which has matured in class and team tactics, Doyle and English international Doug Dailey were the two most watched men in the early stages. Everywhere they went the bunch followed. But few, if any, could have followed Doyle up the terrifying Gap of Mamore on Friday.

They all wanted to be with him when the climb started, so Elliott, Phil O'Brien and Harry Dawson of Bray were allowed the opportunity to escape.

When they went away Doyle merely put on the brakes, slowing down the race and assuring Elliott of the overall lead he was never to lose.

Doyle told me, “This. is the only way to ride a race like this. You must take the breaks as they come and then make sure they work out. Once Paul was in the lead we decided to step up the pace of the bunch every day and that would stop other riders trying to jump away.”

“1 can tell you it was hard work. On Saturday. I rode for 40 miles at the front. But I enjoyed it. ‘I was doing a job and I had not the same worryas Paul had.” ..

Bray easily won the club event from Sheffield R.C, with the All Stars winning the regional section.

STAGE 10

Monaghan to Dublin, 85 miles)—1, P. Marrows (West Yorkshire), 3 hours, 34 mins, 33 seconds; 2, F. Smith (Dublin Wheelers); 3, D. Allen (Merseyside), both 3-34-44.

STAGE 11

(30 miles Circuit Race)—1, W. Trott (Radevormwald); 2, B.Lewis (Colchester): 3, R, Davis (Polhill); 4, J. Smyth (Belfast); 5, P. Ettridge (Hounslow); 6, R, Kearns (Leicester) all 1-827.

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION

1. P. Elliott (Bray Wheelers) 32-1328; 2. R. Crayford (South London), 32-16-00; 3. N. Galagher (Four Provinces), 32-16-25; 4. A. Gardner (Sheffield) 32-1929; 5. B. Beeston (All Stars), 32-19-33; 6. D. Dailey (Merseyside) 32-20-03; 7. M. Buckx (Radevormwald), 32-20-30; 8. B. Biddle (All Stars) 32-21-02; 9. J. Smyth (Belfast) 32-21-31; 10, T. Moloney (Al Stars), 322147; 11, P. J. O'Kelly (Buccaneers, London) 32-21-55; 12, B. Ferris (Leinster), 32-22-26; 13, P. McQuaid (Emerald), 32-2244.

TEAM CLASSIFICATION

Regional—1, All Stars, 97-02 17; 2, West Germany, 97-11-36; 3, Leinster 97-15-06; 4, Belfast 97-15-56; 5 South London 97-2224; 6, Merseyside, 97-26-03; 7, Four Provinces, 97-32-34.

Club.—1, Bray Wheelers 97-07-26; 2, Sheffield, 97-19-30; 3, Emerald, 98-14-32; 4, Dublin Wheelers 98-25-29; 5 Clay Velo 99.1243; 6, County Dublin 100-27-93.

POINTS CLASSIFICATION

Shared between D. Kane, J. McCarthy, P. Elliott all 14 points.

KING OF THE HILLS

1, D. Dailey, 12 pts; 2, B.Beeston, 7 pts; 3, D. Kroll, 5 pts

This he did, although not mapped in the last stage when he came in with the bunch, so he became the third successive Irish winner, finishing with a 2 min. 32 second advantage over his nearest rival Bob Crayford (South London) with Noel Gallagher (Four Provinces) third.

Sheffield rider Alan Gardner was fourth, well behind Elliott, and behind him the next best Irishman was Joe Smyth (Belfast), whom finished 74 minutes behind Elliott in 9^th place in the general classification.

Taken in all it was a triumph not only for Elliott, but also his club Bray Wheelers who helped in no small way towards his victory and also made sure of taking the team award, while the regional award went to the All-Stars consisting of riders who had been in action in the Commonwealth Games.

Elliott took this event at his first attempt for he had been out of the game for five years and only got back into serious training some months ago.

During the week he was never far from the top of the table, where the leaders had less than a minute dividing them, However when the Inishowen ‘100’ stage was held in Donegal Elliott and the Bray Wheelers club, ably managed by Peter Crinnion, came into their own.

Elliott won the stage and took over the race leader's jersey for the remainder of the race. On Saturday he held it after the stage to Monaghan and later following the 7 miles time trial there, and yesterday morning had a 2-32 advantage over Crayford.

The run from Monaghan to Dublin produced a stage winner in Phil Marrows (West Yorkshire), hitherto unheard of in the tour, with Fred Smith (Dublin Wheelers) second and Dave Allen (Merseyside) third.

Safely tucked in behind the winner in the bunch, which came home a mere 11 seconds behind the winner, was Eliott, and he was also well there with the bunch in the afternoon during the circuit stage. This was won by the German Wolfgang Trott with

Brian Lewis (Colchester Rovers) second, and Ron Davis (Pelhill third). None of these were any danger to Elliott ‘so he had no worries, except perhaps on the last lap when he punctured. His teammate Jimmy Doyle gave him his machine, however, and Elliott coasted in with the bunch, a comfortable winner in the best Tour of Ireland to date.

BRAY Wheelers are justly proud that Paul Elliott and Peter Doyle are on the Ireland team for the Tour of Scotland 5 Day cycling classic which starts on Tuesday, but are really annoyed by the decision to force the same two riders on to a Leinster team for the forthcoming Tour of Ireland in August, against their wishes.

The reason is that the rules states that a rider cannot opt out of an Ireland team in favour of a club team, which is fair enough, but this does not apply to a regional team in favour of a club team        - Leinster – and when the Bray club informed the Cycling Association of their intention to ride as a Bray Wheelers team and would not be available for the Leinster team, they were informed that they could not do.

 TEAM SPIRIT

Bray's reason for doing so are two-fold. Firstly, because the club is sponsored and want to field the strongest possible team for their sponsors and ad secondly, the club feels they have a better chance of winning the tour than if their riders are split up with some of them riding for Leinster and some riding for Bray

It is said at some levels that this is another by the Dublin clubs to reorganise the Bray Club which has been dominating the cycling scene for over a decade. But Bray boys are adamant. Peter Doyle, Paul Elliott and Harry Dawson say they prefer to ride with their club, and the club is willing to back them to a man.

SPONSORED

The Leinster team, also sponsored, are paying all expenses, but Bray riders who normally have to pay all expenses out of their own pockets. are still willing to do so unless the club funds could be tapped which would mean something in the region of well over one hundred pounds, but it would be money well spent in the interest of sticking to a principle they feel is right.

IN one of the most magnificent displays of team-riding and sheer, unselfish sportsmanship. Bray Wheelers swept the boards for a historic individual and team win in the most successful and highly spectacular tour of Ireland cycle race to date. Paul Elliott was victorious by over two and a half minutes, and the Bray team of Liam McKenna, Phil O'Brien and Gerry Pearson, finished over twelve minutes clear of Sheffield, England.

When one remembers that they were competing as a club team against the strongest line-up  of International riders blended into regional teams ever mustered in this race, crack teams from Germany. All Stars which included two New Zealanders, English, Welsh and the home provinces, not to mention the many strong club teams that made up the one hundred and twenty starters. Theirs was an amazing feat indeed.

Wretched bad luck in the opening stages put the whole Bray team way down the field. Even their team car down with the vital spares. As they slowly fought their way back into the reckoning a serious position arose as the foreign teams, realising the powerful potential of Peter Doyle and his team, joined forces with German. New Zealand and English stars riding for each other to counter Bray's every move.

So successful was this move that when the race entered Donegal’s Buncrana with only three days of this eight day marathon left, Bray were practically shattered. With Paul Elliott lying twelfth, 3.5 minutes down and Peter Doyle over eight minutes behind the leaders - Gardner (Sheffield and Buckx (Germany) - with the Bray team lying four minutes behind Sheffield in the team award.

The night before the tortuous mountain stage, Peter Crinnion, the Bray team manager, laid his plans before the Bray team, and he called on a drastic plan of action which would cost Peter Doyle his chance of winning, but could give Bray victory, which was the ultimate plan.

Everyone would be watching Doyle on the mountains, and as they set out, first Paul Elliott, then Phil O'Brien and then Harry Dawson slipped away for Bray, and. as they toiled up the mountain, Doyle bided his time.

Over the top it was Harry Dawson alone, to be joined by Elliott on the descent, with Doug Daley (England), by then they had a lead of over five minutes. and when they swept into Buncrana it was Paul Elliott first, Harry Dawson close behind in fifth, Phil O'Brien in eighth and Peter Doyle, coming home alone, tenth. Bray had taken the lead by over a minute with the team award easily won by over twelve minutes, heading for home again it was Bray all the way, with Paul Elliott winning easily in the Phoenix Park by over two minutes, and the triumphant Bray team winners.

This was one of the greatest wins in the history of the club, and full credit to all the members who worked so hard to achieve it.

Paul Elliott (above) demonstrated once again the tremendous strides that Irish cycling has made when he won the Raleigh-Dunlop 8-day Tour of Ireland which finished in the Phoenix Park on Sunday.

It took courage and dedication for the 29-year-old Bray Wheelers rider to achieve this success and he is our unanimous choice as Sports Personality of the Week.

Five years ago, with a promising future in front of him, Elliott gave up cycling. He felt there was not enough competition and, as he says himself, “lost interest”. He had Bray Wheelers rider to achieve this success — and he is our unanimous choice as Sports Personality of the Week.

Before the start of this year Bray Wheelers asked Elliott to make a comeback. And then his battle for fitness started. He gave up every other interest through to devote every possible minute to training. He won the National Road championship and then rode for Ireland in the Tour of Scotland and the World championships in Leicester.

He crashed in Leicester, but his brother Shay gave him one of his bikes for this gruelling tour. Now his comeback is complete, but of the future the quietly spoken Elliott says,

“I’ll wait and see.”

TIME TRIAL TRIUMPH IN MILK RACE

PETER DOYLE scorched his way to cycling history yesterday when he became the first Irishman to win a stage in the Scottish Milk Races. The Bray Wheelers’ star proved too fast for all the Continental cracks in the 15-mile time trial at Leven (Fifeshire) as he flashed over the undulating course in 36 minutes 58 seconds, beating his nearest rival, Jean Millard of France, by an amazing 19 seconds.

Doyle didn’t do so well in the afternoon's stage a 60-mile road race from Leven to Perth—but with three days still to go he is now in fourth place in the general classification, less than two minutes behind the leader, Wojciech Matusiak of Poland.

Matusiak took over the leadership after winning the 60-mile road race, sprinting clear from a breakaway group of eight riders.

His compatriot, Ryzsard Szurkowski, was in the group and moves into second overall place while the former leader Ben Janbroers (Holland) dropped to third place overall.

Second place on the stage went to Belgian Jean van der Wiele, who moves into fifth overall place as a result climbing 15 places in the general classification. England's Doug Dailey took third place in this group, which had broken away from the main field with 23 miles to go. It was a fast run with a speed of nearly 27 miles per hour for most of the way and the eight men, when they broke clear. worked tremendously hard to gain some advantage.

With 15 miles to go their lead had risen to two minutes 10 seconds but a strong counter attack by Janbroers and other members of the Dutch team reduced this to one minute 58 seconds at the line.

This margin was still enough to allow the two Polish riders to go up from fifth and sixth place into the leading two positions and also take over the lead in the team race.

The race is developing into 2 hard battle between the continental teams and the “home” nations. England, Ireland and Scotland are having a hard task in trying to even keep with the attacks, let alone attacking themselves.

The Poles, who now lead the race completely, are likely to be strongly countered over the three days of racing by Holland, France, Czechoslovakia and Belgium, and it's going to be difficult for Doyle to keep up with the leaders.

The Details

Stage 1 - 13 mile time trial

1, P. DOYLE (Ireland), 36 mins. 58 secs; 2, J. Millard (France) 37 mins. 17 secs.; 3, A. Mollet (France), 37 mins, 37 secs.

Stage 2 - 60 miles road race

(Leven to Perth) — 1, W. Matusiak (Poland) 2 hrs, 14 mins. 31 sees; 2, J, Van Der Wiele (Belgium) 2 hrs. 14 mins 31secs; 3, D. Dailey (England) 2 hrs. 14 mins, 31 secs.

The 14th annual Bray Wheelers’ Mountain Time Trial over 42 miles was won by Peter Doyle of the promoting club in the decidedly record time of I hour 45 minutes 29 seconds, beating the record of P Flanagan, of Brownstown. by 4 minutes and 42 seconds,

Doyle had Horner caught in Annamoe for three minutes, this being 16 miles after the start, and M. Toolan caused an upset by relegating Horner and Dawson to third and fourth place, respectively. .

Doyle's winning ride was an average of 25.022 miles per hour, which 1s over an exceptionally tough course, which went through Longhill, Roundwood. Annamoe, Laragh, Rathdrum and Ashford, with the finish in the Glen o’ the Downs.

Details:

P. Doyle (Bray Wheelers) 1 hr. 45 mins. 29 secs (record). M. Toolan (Loraine) 1 hr. 52 mins. 34 secs. L. Horner (Co. Dublin Road Club) 1 hr. 53 mins. .09 secs. H. Dawson (Bray Wheelers) 1 hr 53 mins. 42 secs

Bray Wheelers’ Cycling Club held - their twenty-first celebration dinner in the International Hotel Bray, on Saturday.

A record turn-out of cycling personalities turned up to help them make it a night to remember Shay Elliott, former President, Peter Crinnion, John Lackey, Pat McQuaid, Jim McQuaid, Noel O'Neill, Joe Smith and Noel Teggard (Belfast), Brendan O'Reilly R.T.E. (President) and many more champions.

All the well know clubs and associations were represented.

One of the highlights of the evening was a Tour of Ireland film showed the, great victory of the club in this year’s cycling marathon, following which a special presentation was made to the Bray team.

Many tributes were paid to the clubs record down the years by the many guest speakers, and the Club Chairman was then called on to cut the huge birthday cake which had a model cycle race surrounded by candies.

A special presentation was then made to the Chairman (Mr. Joe Loughman) of a silver tea tray suitably inscribed, for his services to the club all down the years.