Team Ireland's quadcross dreams shattered at Cingoli in Italy after results mix-up

Mark McLernon and David Cowan crossed the finish line in race three and the team were announced in third behind the all-conquering Americans and the host nation Italy.

McLernon, Dean Dillon, Cowan and team boss Gordon Gilchrist were delighted with the result.

However, one-and-a-half-hours later they confirmed in fourth with Argentina promoted to third.

“I’m absolutely devastated,” said team boss Gilchrist.

“We both finished on equal points, however Argentina had a better finish in the final race. It’s bad enough to miss out on the podium but they shouldn’t have announced we were third only to tell us an hour-and-a-half later that we were fourth. I’m so proud of their performance today. We will be back next year to puts things right.”

At one of the fastest and most specular tracks in the world, McLernon got the team off to a brilliant start, finishing fifth, after leading for six amazing laps. Americans Joel Hetrick and Bryce Ford with team GB rider Harry Walker completed the podium.

Dean Dillon recovered well from an incident packed opening lap to finish 10th.

“I hole-shotted the race and and held on as long as I could,” said McLernon. “When the two Americans and Harry Walker passed me, they were gone.

"I had a great scrap with Frenchman Sylvian Petit for fifth. It was a tough race.”

Dillon added: “It was never going to be easy starting from the back row. “I got pushed wide and was 20th going into the first corner. Two pile-ups on the opening lap didn’t help but I just kept chipping away into ninth, but made a mistake on the last lap and ended up 10th.”

Two solid finishes in race two from Dillon and Banbridge rider Cowan saw the team in third going into the final race.

The initial start was red-flagged after a start gate failure and in the restart it was the American Joel Hetrick who made the holeshot. McLernon was in the leading group and fought hard over the 16-lap race to finish seventh with Cowan putting in another steady performance.

Hetrick and Chad Wienen made it the third American one-two as they claimed their fifth QXoN victory.

The Italian fans went wild as Patrick Turrini finished third, giving the hosts second overall with Argentina third.

Summing up the weekend, McLernon said: “It’s just a pity we didn’t get on the podium but the Argentinian’s obviously did better than us. We will still have a few beers tonight.

"The weekend was good fun and for all the riding I have done this year, I was happy.”

Dillon was left with a sense of frustration.

“It is frustrating,” he said. “After being told you were third then over an hour later to find out you are fourth, and missed the podium, is hard to take. We will have to come back next year and get back up there.”

Cowan concluded: “It’s one of them things. I’m still happy. The boys did well and it is no shame to be fourth.”

Under team boss Jim Reid the sidecarcross Team Ireland of Neil Campbell/Scott Grahame and Jonny Wilson/Andrew Rowan along with Andy and Adam McKibbin, finished 10th.

It was an eventful event for the crews. Campbell had his best ever ‘Nations’ finishing 13th and eighth while Andy McKibbin finished the last race with a suspected broken scaphoid.

Wilson and Rowan completed the final race in second gear after a broken gear lever on lap two.