Date: Sunday 10 April 2005
Event: NPS Round 1
Location: Castlewellan Forest
Host club: XMTB
Superb Start To Off Road Season
The 2005 Irish Mountainbike season began at the XMTB Club’s brilliant promotion at Castlewellan Forest Park on Sunday. Not only was the entry the best at a local race in recent years, (140 competitors turned up), the weather was superb which, on an excellent course, served up a feast of top class mountain bike action.
The six lap Pro/Elite race saw Barry Nolan take an early advantage ahead of Peter Buggle and Lewis Ferguson. By the end of the second lap Nolan had slipped to fourth as Ferguson took the the lead with Buggle in a close second, Glenn Kinning slotting into third.
By half distance the race had turned into a lone dual between Buggle and Ferguson, with neither rider able to break clear. With two laps to go Buggle made the break and by the finish had pulled out an advantage of almost three minutes over Ferguson.
Early leader Nolan, making his Pro/Elite debut recovered in the closing stages to take a fine third with James McCluskey fourth from the promoting Club’s Tim Edgar. The top six was completed by another Pro/Elite debutant, Phillip Roche.
Newry rider Peter McConville easily took the four lap Masters race. In the early part of the race McConville was involved in a tense battle with Southerner John Doris. However Doris had the misfortune to break his chain which handed a clear advantage to McConville. Doris repaired his chain and rejoined the race in second, holding on to finish runner up to McConville. Danny Hylands started the season with a fine third as Martin O’Hagan took fourth ahead of Masters first timer, John Oram. In an photo finish for sixth, Paul Anderson just got the verdict over Andy Wallace.
Race organiser, Robbie Lamont, swept all before him to romp to victory in the three lap Vets race, his job made all the easier when main rivals Johnny McCabe and William Mulligan missed the start. Knud Jensen ended up second with late starters McCabe and Mulligan recovering to finish a close third and fourth.
XMTB celebrated another success as Andy McCullough was a start to finish success story in the Junior race, run over four laps. Making his Junior debut, Conor McConvey took second with Matt Ferguson in third.
Tarjia Owens rode to glory in the Ladies race finishing well ahead of Caira McManus. Beth McCluskey was forced out with mechanical problems, which virtually handed success to Owens.
The best entry of the day came in the Sports race, which saw a whopping 45 riders tackle the three lapper. Southern rider Nial Davis was in a class of his own as he rode to an emphatic win, the remarkable rider leading from start to finish. Damien Mulhorne took second ahead of John Jordan with Andy Yoong the best of the downhill brigade, finishing in fourth.
The Underage Classes featured good entries, many of the riders products of the recent XMTB Dundonald Series. In the new U-8 class James Curry from Banbridge scored a narrow win over John Thomas. The Banbridge Club scored another win as Mark Downey took the U-10 race from fellow club rider Dan Runciman.
Michael Runciman completed the hat trick for the Banbridge Club with success in the U-12 event in which his arch rival Robbie Lamont of XMTB finished runner up. In the U-14 race Johnny Beers romped home ahead of fellow XMTB riders Michael Gordon and Chris Cameron. The U-16 riders had to endure three full laps of the main course with XMTB’s Andy Hunter a clear winner with come back star Andy Godfrey a great second as Banbridge rider Sean Downey grabbed third on his U-16 debut.
What a great start to the season, plenty of new faces mixing with the regulars in splendid sunshine, in one word….brilliant.
Results:
U-8.
1.J.Curry
2.J.Thomas
3.R.Mayne
4.J.Dunlop
5.T.Niblock
6.S.Hylands
7.J.McErlean
U-10
1.M.Downey
2.D.Runciman
3.C.Oakley
4.L.Litvak
5.J.Curry
6.T.MacKness
7.C.Mulligan.
U-12
1.M.Runciman
2.R.Lamont
3.M.Downey
4.G.Dunlop
5.C.Oakley
6.K.Mckeown
7.S.Ballintine
8.M.Corbett
9.R.Mulligan
10.R.McErlean
U-14
1.J.Beers.=
2.M.Gordon
3.C.Cameron
4.J.Laird
5.S.Patterson
6.W.Boyd.
7.H.Mayne
U-16.
1.A.Hunter
2.A.Godfery
3.S.Downey
4.G.Boyd
5.P.Mckeown
6.N.Mccormick
7.M.Casey
8.R.Davidson.
Elite.
1.P.Buggle
2.L.Ferguson
3.B.Nolan
4.J.Mccluskey
5.T.Edgar.
6.P.Roche
7.P.O’Farrell
8.D.King-Smith
9.G.Wolfe
10.G.Kinning.
11.A.Newman
12.D.O’Neill
13.S.Galloway
14.R.Carr.
Junior
1.A.Mccullough
2.C.Mcconvey
3.M.Ferguson
4.D.Gordon
5.S.Mcdonald
6.A.Mcsorley
Masters
1.P.Mcconville
2.J.Doris
3.D.Hylands
4.M.O’Hagan
5.J.Oram
6.P.Anderson
7.A.Wallace
Vets.
1.R.Lamont
2.K.Jensen
3.J.Mccabe
4.W.Mulligan
5.A.Ryan
6.A.Burns.
7.J.May
8.C.Higgins
9.P.Coyne
10.E.McConvey
11.D.McCabe
12.J.Runciman
13.L.Walpole
14.R.Byrne
15.A.Ruch
16.T.Annett
17.I.Tinson
18.W.Mcallister
19.L.Litvak
Sports
1.N.Davis
2.D.Mulhorne
3.J.Jordan
4.A.Yoong
5.S.Decies
6.G.Mccabe
7.J.Popham
8.U.Keith
9.D.Askin
10.G.O’Brien
11.J.Reid
12.R.Cummins
13.G.Maguire
14.L.Ireland
15.R.Lawrence
16.D.McCamphill
17.M.O’Connell
18.A.O’Brien
19.D.O’Brien
20.J.Ward
21.S.Murphy
22.G.Adamson
23.S.Curry
Women
1.T.Owens
2.C.McManus
Report : Andy Potts
Original report location here