Date: Sunday 28 September 2008
Event: Round 6 NPS Series
Location: Castlewellan Forest
Host club: Banbridge CC
The beautiful Castlewellan Forest Park in County Down played host to Round 6 of the Irish National Points Series for Mountain bike racing. This round was organised by Banbridge Cycling Club and also doubled up as a round of the Ulster MTB series. Riders were greeted with warm autumn sunshine
which remained throughout the day. This was a big change from the last time Banbridge CC tried to run this event back in August when the event was postponed due to sections of the course being washed away by torrential rain. The club, in co-operation with the Forestry Service, had worked very hard to rebuild the course to the standard required for this level of event.
There was a large gathering of 120 riders across 13 categories from all parts of Ireland. Racing got underway at 11am with the Under 8s and Under 10s doing laps of their own separate ‘mini-course’. Dromara Cycling Club’s Ben Hanna thoroughly enjoyed his race and finished a respectable 4th in the Under 8 category. At 11:30 the Under 12 race began around their own section of the forest. As in many races this season the top 3 places all went to Banbridge CC’s young riders with Mark Downey taking the top spot. At 12 noon a large mass of riders gathered at the start / finish line. The first group away were the Under 16s who had 2 laps of the senior course to negotiate. Banbridge CC’s Mathew Adair took the honours almost 2½ minutes ahead of closest rival William Boyd from XMTB.
Next away was the large group of 33 Sports riders both male and female. In the group it was great to see the new Dromara mountain bikers including Paul Jess and brothers Gavin and Chris Magowan who were joined by seasoned Sports rider Martin Grimley. Once the whistle blew it was a mass charge along the fire road to the first corner with XMTB’s Ronan Corrigan reaching the corner first. Riders went around the corner then up, up and up along the fire road into the main forest before cutting to the right and into some tight single track through the trees. The week of dry weather had left the forest floor in perfect condition but there were still some very tricky downhill sections through and over rocks and squeezing through the trees. Each of the single track sections were too narrow for any overtaking but the course always returned to the wide fire road and of course, more climbing. The course designers did make better use of the forest sections than in previous years and had removed the long fire road section which meant that there were less places to catch your breath and comfortably take on food and drink. This added to the intensity of the racing and riders had to be very disciplined about refueling their bodies whenever they could. Included in this new course design was a ‘bomb hole’ which always draws a crowd of spectators. The bomb-hole was easily accessible from the fire road but for the riders it was only a small part of a long lap. Dromara CC’s Martin Grimley had to stop twice to fix a loose front wheel costing him two places but he still managed to finish ahead of his main rival Stephen Prentice (Banbridge CC). Dromara CC’s other up and coming MTB rider Gavin Magowan took a tumble early on in the race landing heavily on his shoulder and breaking off the visor on his helmet. He did manage to recover to finish 15th. Back in 20th place was fellow team mate Paul Jess who thoroughly enjoyed the course. Unfortunately Gavin’s brother Chris punctured on the first lap.
Next away were the Under 14s who had to complete one lap of the tough senior course. Seven out of the 10 riders were from the North Down club XMTB with one rider from Juiced Orchard, Banbridge CC and our own Zak Hanna from Dromara CC. Zak wrote, “I struggled to get up to the front with someone trying to knock me into the hedges. Once I got to the first corner, I broke away from my pack and lead up the hill until I was passed before the first forest bit. I had a tough battle with Dan Runciman, until he fell off. It was suspected that he had broken his wrist. After the accident I rode on to the last bit of singletrack, where I was caught by XMTB’s Claire Oakley and I was beaten by about half a wheel to the line to finish 6th.“
At 1:30 it was the turn of the main senior races with Olympian Robin Seymour (Team Worc) in among the 9 Elite riders who had to complete 5 laps of the main course. Robin lead from start to finish and came home over 2 minutes ahead of team mate Peter Buggle.
Next off were the Elite women and Junior riders, both categories having to complete 3 laps of the main course. Cait Elliott, UCD finished almost 3 minutes ahead of Mel Spath, MAD, in the Elite women’s race and in the Junior race it was on-form Johnny Beers, East Antrim, who finished over 1 minute ahead of Sorrento CC’s Conal Higgins.
After the Elites it was the turn of the Experts race with only a field of 6 riders, somewhat smaller than usual, to race around 4 laps of the senior circuit. UCD’s Oisin Boydell dominated this race winning by almost 4½ minutes over his closest rival Luke Ireland, Real Cycles who had won at Dunmore a fortnight ago. Dromara CC’s Ross Galway finished a respectable 4th one position down from the event at Dunmore.
The Masters race followed with 14 riders lining up for the 4 lap event. There were 4 retirees in this race and out of the 10 that did finish it was Conor Campbell, Newry Wheelers who finished just over 1 minute ahead of Mark Allen, Swords CC with Andrew Wallace, Dave Kane Northern coming in a close third.
The highly contested Vets race was the last to set off covering 3 laps of the course. XMTBs Robbie Lamont who had won at Dunmore a fortnight ago but was unable to get ahead of iron man Gerry McCabe, Cuchulainn CC who finished first with brother Johnny McCabe (Cuchulainn CC) finishing third.
Many thanks to Banbridge Cycling Club for all their efforts. The course design was excellent with well organised sign on, car parking etc. This event marks the end of the MTB XC racing for the year but there is more MTB action as part of the cyclo-cross season starting next weekend in Craigavon.
Full results given below
ELITE MEN (5 laps main course)
1 Robin Seymour, Team Worc 1.48.53
2 Peter Buggle, Team Worc 1.51.11
3 Ryan Sherlock, MAD 1.56.37
4 Richard Felle, Team Worc 1.59.12
5 Graham Boyd, XMTB 2.02.45
6 James McCluskey, IMBRC 2.05.59
7 Aiden McDonald, Apollo CT 4 laps
8 Simon McConnell, Real Cycles 4 laps
Neil McGimpsey, XMTB DNF
ELITE WOMEN (3 laps main course)
1 Cait Elliott, UCD 1.22.50
2 Mel Spath, MAD 1.25.42
3 Ciara McManus, U/A 1.34.59
JUNIORS (3 laps main course)
1 Johnny Beers, East Antrim Audi 1.23.18
2 Conal Higgins, Sorrento CC 1.24.20
3 Chris Cameron, North Down 1.50.49
4 Ryan McCarthy, IMBRC 2 laps
EXPERTS (4 laps main course)
1 Oisin Boydell, UCD 1.44.55
2 Luke Ireland, Real Cycles 1.49.21
3 Andy Godfrey, XMTB 1.50.56
4 Ross Galway, Dromara CC 1.55.25
5 Matt Blayney, North Down 1.57.30
6 Barry Kellett, U/A 2.10.45
MASTERS (4 laps main course)
1 Conor Campbell, Newry Wheelers 1.39.37
2 Mark Allen, Swords CC 1.41.50
3 Andrew Wallace, Dave Kane Northern 1.50.56
4 Oscar MacAnaney, EPIC MTB 1.51.59
5 Steven Hutchinson, East Tyrone RC 1.52.23
6 Ross Blayney, Ards CC 1.59.45
7 JJ Conway, Harps CC 2.01.42
8 Glenn Armstrong, North Down 2.05.54
9 Liam McKiverigan, Banbridge CC 2.10.03
10 Keith Close, U/A 2.18.20
Kenny McCracken, U/A DNF
Kieran McKenna, East Antrim Audi DNF
Clive Caldwell, Total Cycling DNF
Paul Ferguson, North Down DNF
VETS (3 laps main course)
1 Gerry McCabe, Cuchulainn CC 1.12.03
2 Robert Lamont, XMTB 1.13.56
3 Johnny McCabe, Cuchulainn CC 1.16.49
4 Peter McConville, Newry Wheelers 1.19.57
5 Paul McMenamin, Leisure Lakes 1.19.58
6 Andy Burns, Juiced Orchard 1.22.25
7 Simon Curry, Banbridge CC 1.24.06
8 Declan McCabe, Cuchulainn CC 1.26.45
9 Eamon McConvey, Newry Wheelers 1.26.46
10 Paul Anderson, Banbridge CC 1.30.28
11 Eamon McConvey, McConvey Cycles 1.32.06
12 Johnathan Buller, Banbridge CC 1.35.51
William Forsythe, Banbridge CC DNF
Jon Runciman, Banbridge CC DNF
SPORTS MEN (2 laps main course)
1 Martin O’Reilly, U/A 55.10
2 Colm Keane, IMBRC 55.20
3 Ronan Corrigan, XMTB 55.21
4 Joey Jones, IMBRC 57.45
5 Alan Bingham, Cuchulainn CC 1.00.07
6 Mark Kidd, IMBRC 1.00.39
7 Tony Kelly, Cuchulainn CC 1.00.46
8 Gareth Maguire, IMBRC 1.01.08
9 Martin Grimley, Dromara CC 1.01.49
10 Stephen Prentice, Banbridge CC 1.02.52
11 Conor Mansell, U/A 1.03.17
12 Cornelius Duffy, IMBRC 1.04.07
13 Dave Neill, Juiced Orchard 1.05.20
14 Richard Stewart, U/A 1.05.52
15 Gavin Magowan, Dromara CC 1.05.59
16 Paul Barry, IMBRC 1.06.20
17 Ben Marchant, IMBRC 1.06.27
18 Ray Beers, XMTB 1.06.58
19 Conor Graham, U/A 1.10.53
20 Paul Jess, Dromara CC 1.13.07
21 Ian Buchannan, U/A 1.13.28
22 Philip Gallagher, Scottish MTB 1.16.00
23 Andrew Adair, Banbridge CC 1.18.17
24 Gavin Snowden, U/A 1.19.02
25 Clive Bell, XMTB 1.23.44
26 Jamie Hodgett, Banbridge CC 1.28.22
27 Paul Byrne, Banbridge CC 1.36.45
28 Kevin Pryce, U/A 1.40.20
Andrew Wilson, U/A DNF
Chris Magowan, Dromara CC DNF
SPORTS WOMEN (2 laps main course)
1 Ann Duffy, Newry Wheelers 1.12.09
2 Nicola Oldham, Banbridge CC 1.35.31
3 Sharon Kennedy, U/A 2.00.05
UNDER 16s (2 laps main course)
1 Matthew Adair, Banbridge CC 49.59
2 William Boyd, XMTB 52.24
3 Robert Scanlon, Team Worc 54.06
4 Michael Runciman, Banbridge CC 55.59
UNDER 14s (1 lap main course)
1 Robbie Lamont, XMTB 26.40
2 Robert Anderson, Juiced Orchard 26.56
3 Kyle McEwan, XMTB 27.05
4 Chris Oakley, XMTB 28.15
5 Claire Oakley, XMTB 31.22
6 Zak Hanna, Dromara CC 31.32
7 Stuart Ballantine, XMTB 33.18
8 Nathanael Smyth, XMTB 41.08
9 Curtis Bell, XMTB 47.40
Dan Runciman, Banbridge CC DNF
UNDER 12s (1 lap U-12 course)
1 Mark Downey, Banbridge CC 11.22
2 James Curry, Banbridge CC 12.15
3 Joseph Baird, Banbridge CC 13.09
4 Eoghan O’Reilly, U/A 13.20
5 Rachel Mayne, Banbridge CC 13.35
6 Alex Bell, XMTB 13.49
7 Aimee Ogilby, XMTB 14.43
UNDER 10s (4 laps mini course)
1 John Buller, Banbridge CC 6.59
2 Richard Baird, Banbridge CC 7.11
3 Shannon Buller, Banbridge CC 7.52
4 Cian McConvey, Newry Wheelers 7.54
5 Gregory Bell, XMTB 8.30
6 Jack Lamont, XMTB 9.07
7 Joel Smyth, XMTB 9.10
8 Matthew McBratney, Ards CC 13.22
UNDER 8s (2 laps mini course)
1 Stuart Dunlop, Banbridge CC 3.54
2 Mark Buller, Banbridge CC 4.05
3 Shenna McKiverigan, Banbridge CC 4.06
4 Ben Hanna, Dromara CC 4.22
5 Fergal McConvey, Newry Wheelers 4.32
6 Jack Baird, Banbridge CC 4.42
7 Drew Armstrong, U/A 4.47
8 Rebekah Ogilby, XMTB 6.27
Report by: Martin Grimley