Junior National 25 TT Championship
5th June 2010

Conor Dunne kept up a family tradition in the ‘blue riband’ 2010 25 mile Time Trial Championships by taking the Junior title, adding to his uncle Roger’s gold in the 1984 Senior Team Time Trial Championships. It marks Conor’s coming of age in this discipline after a string of silver medals last year, and a hiccup two weeks ago in the 10 mile Championship when as strong favourite nerves got the better of him and he missed out by 6 seconds to Oliver Rossi his incredulous training partner.

Conor entered Saturday’s event with a fair amount of trepidation, not least because we were all expecting him to finally claim that elusive ‘National Champion’ title. But, continuing the suspense of two week’s earlier, he didn’t give his supporters an easy time. At the first time-check, the 10 mile point, Bob Downs (winner of 5 national TT titles himself) put him 40 seconds ahead of the second best time, and things, initially at least, seemed to be running to plan. When Bob joined Conor’s dad, John, at the 15 mile point he expected the safe margin to be extended further, but was greeted with the words ‘we’ve got a problem here Bob’. His time was now equal with the former second place rider, the very talented young Irish rider Ryan Mullen (Planet X), current holder of the prestigious GHS under 16 title, who has been quietly been scoring many surprises in the TT world and is a great prospect for the future.
Bob and John headed back to the finish wondering what had happened to turn the tables so much in the space of 5 miles with no sign of a crash or mechanical problem. Bob dropped John off near the 20 mile point and told him to text his time as he went through. As the riders checked by it was clear the title was between Conor and Ryan. Ryan had started two minutes in front of Conor and as he passed he looked efficient and controlled. John checked his watch nervously as the time passed with no sign of Conor, ...1.00,...1.20,...1.40,...‘b###dy hell Conor, where are you?’. Eventually he appeared on the horizon. As he passed John bellowed ‘only two seconds up’. Conor had been preparing himself for the final effort. It was the last thing he heard as he buried himself, desperate to rid himself of the second place albatross. He finally crossed the line to win by 10 precious seconds and collapsed oblivious against Bob’s van. At last...and now he can get back to his books to get his A-level exams out of the way before returning to the important business of racing, which is back in Belgium very soon.

So why did he lose all that time? Conor explained that on approaching a roundabout - at speed naturally - he found his course about to be occupied by a bus that had priority and was clearly not yielding. Conor had no option but come to a complete stop. Bob’s assessment of this was that you could easily lose 30 seconds coming to a stop from 30 mph and getting back to speed again, and the interruption to rhythm can last for a few miles longer and account for further seconds.

All the hard work with Steve China with his first class coaching has put Conor on the top step of the podium.

Well done Conor - a National champion at last!