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Phil Weston , with his safe and steady mopping up the middle ground route, has won the Bally Rally knocking Robert into 2nd place. Phil managed to outsmart Robert by altering his route ever so slightly from that which  Rob chose which enabled him to squeeze a couple of extra points . Arriving at asda at 5.05 got him 505 points compared to Robs 201 at 2.01pm

Robert had some problems with his GPS on the road but this wasn't a factor in the result. If Robert Roalfe says he found it hard to plot a good route then you know the Bonus Book was no walk in the park.

All the riders rode very very similar routes. Joe Fisher (3rd)almost grabbed victory, and indeed had been awarded first place until a scoring error came to light which relegated him to 3rd. Joe had completed a verified Circuit of Ireland during the 24hrs. The only rider to do so.That 2500 pts and his bonuses, gave him 12,283 points. However, the scorer (me) had made an error. The time penalties started at 7.30 am and Joe arrived back at 7.43am. This cost him 660 pts which had been omitted in the first calculation. So poor Joe was shunted back into 3rd ( after having been presented first )  Even I wasn't sure if a circuit ride could be done and collect the compulsory Bally bonuses but Joe showed it could be done and VERY nearly made it pay off.

The riders routes were remarkably similar. In fact they were so similar I was beginning to worry we might have a tie. But there was just enough variation to split them up. Phil even left points on the table when I turned a photo of his down. Phil lost his flag and omitted his mugshot in one photo so he got zilch for that.

Sam Clarke (4th) was 2nd to return to base and had a sound ride but looked completely shot to bits when he returned. In fact all the riders looked shell shocked but Bacon, eggs and sausages soon brought them back to life.

Gerald Perkins (5th) had been first to return to base at 6am. Gerald had not been using a laptop during route planning and it wasn't easy to work out timings if you'd never rode in Ireland before and didn't know the road conditions.

Every rider stated that they felt this rally was tougher than the brit Butt  . The full 24hrs without rest, trying to juggle the dastardly timed bonuses ( photo with the larne ferry as it leaves was worth 888pts) and coping with some terrible roads in the dark utterly drained them. The wildlife also done it's best with Dogs, herds of Rabbits and wayward Deer all trying to spoil the show.