Mick Cahill Memorial Cycle Race 2004

The race was run in near perfect conditions with a light breeze and bright sunshine. A large crowd stayed to watch the race.

The main race was dominated by a 7 man break which went away in the early stages. The break included Timmy Barry, Paidi O’Brien, Brian Kenneally and Rory Wilie. The main bunch seemed to have trouble organising themselves at this point and this led to the breakaway building up an advantage which at one point reached almost 1 minute on the main bunch.

A chase was organised by Banteer’s Ritchie and Fergal Cahill that eventually brought the gap to just under 30 seconds at the beginning of the last lap. However the main bunch began to slow at the beginning of this last lap and the gap opened up again to about 50 seconds.

The race was run over the same course as previous years with a new finishing lap added. This lap was run over an 8 mile course and included a hill known locally as the “mountain road.” This lap was to prove the most decisive and the lead break split as soon as it reached the hill. Paidi O’Brien and Rory Wilie got away while behind the breakaway Ritchie Cahill was already beginning to eat into the 50 second gap to the remainder of the breakaway.

At the finish line it was Paidi O’Brien who was to take the honours in front of a large crowd with Rory Wilie taking second. Ritchie Cahill put in a fantastic final lap to bridge the 30 second gap and overtake the remainder of the group to finish 3rd.