The May winners in the Aqua Blue Sport Cycling Ireland Monthly Awards are Katie-George Dunlevy (Female Rider of the Month), Matthew Malone (Male Rider of the Month) and Eimear Dignam (Volunteer of the Month). The winners were nominated by Cycling Ireland members, with a selection panel using the nominations and rationale to decide on the final winners.
The Female Rider of the Month for March is Katie-George Dunlevy (Crawley Wheelers). The Paralympic and Double World Champion was honoured in light of the Belgian World Cup gold medal in the Women’s B Tandem Road Race that she added to her collection.
“It’s great to receive the female rider award for the month of May, sponsored by Aqua Blue Sport,” said Dunlevy on receiving the award.
Dunlevy was also silver in the Time Trial, pointing out that it was the first defeat for herself and pilot Eve McCrystal in this event since 2015, highlighting their dominance at world level.
“At the beginning of May we had the first road World Cup in Belgium where myself and Eve (McCrystal) won silver in the Time Trial and gold in the Road Race.
“I realised after that it was our first defeat in the Time Trial since 2015. It shows what run we had in 2016 and
2017, but it also shows us that we can’t be complacent, the competition is fierce and it steps up every year,” determined Dunlevy added. “We have work to do and we are working hard towards the World Championships in five weeks’ time.”
The winner of the Male Rider of the Month for May is Matthew Malone (Ratoath BMX Club). Malone is one of the brightest young talents on the Irish BMX scene, and received this award based on his superb top fifteen position in the European Cup in May.
“The season has gone pretty well so far,” Malone said, on receiving his award, “I had a crash in Manchester earlier in the year, and then missed a few weeks of racing. But I bounced back and did well in some of the European rounds.”
In May Malone competed in the final rounds of the European Cup in Blegny, Belgium, along with Irish teammate Sam Murphy. The 18-year-old raced his way into the semi-finals of the 17-24 age category – “I made it into the semi-final, and to get there was great. This year is my first-time racing in the 17-24 category.”
The focus now switches to the European Championships which take place in Sarrians, France, in the middle of July – “I’m looking forward to racing in the European Championships in the middle of July, I hope to race well and get some good results, I felt pretty good last weekend at the Irish National Championships.”
Last year Malone was one of two Irish team riders selected to attend a high performance training camp in Aigle and felt he benefited from that experience – “Aigle is a world class facility. It was great to get the opportunity to train there in that environment with all the other riders who compete at a high level. It was good to focus on it and get away from all the other distractions.”
The May Volunteer of the Month Award is Eimear Dignam (Cumann Rás Tailteann). Dignam was one of driving forces behind the Rás Tailteann 2018.
“I’m delighted to accept this on behalf of the Rás committee. A lot of work went into it from a lot of people across the whole cycling community right around the country. Everyone rows in behind the race. And this year we were blessed with the weather and the week ran really well.”
The Rás Tailteann was once again an exciting race – “It was a cliff hanger on the last day, and the Rás was won by one second! The Irish stage wins made it too! It was lovely to look back on it the next day and to have run it within the budget and to have had no major incidents, that’s my big feat!
“The foreign teams really enjoyed it too. Brona (O’Sullivan) did a great job of getting the teams in, and there were a good cross section – no one team dominated and there were no big gaps. This gave the Irish riders a real taste of what they can do abroad.”
Dignam concluded with the news everyone wants to hear “we will be back bigger and stronger next year!”
The nominations for the June awards are now open – so CLICK THIS LINK to vote on who you believe deserves these awards based on their achievements in June.
FEMALE RIDER OF THE MONTH FOR MAY: Katie-George Dunlevy
MALE RIDER OF THE MONTH FOR MAY: Matthew Malone
VOLUNTEER OF THE MONTH FOR MAY: Eimear Dignam