Date: Sunday 5 May 2013
Event: Ulster Series Round 2
Location: Kilbroney Park Forest, Rostrevor
Host club: Dromara CC
Round 2 of the Ulster cross-country mountain bike series 2013 took place at Kilbroney Park in Rostrevor on 5 May 2013. This race was part of the Rostrevor Mountain Bike Festival which included a round of the National Point Series downhill series hosted by ChainReaction Cycles and, on the bank holiday Monday, there was an Enduro event hosted by Plush MTB. This was the first time that a ‘triple header’ has been staged in Ireland and it attracted a large crowd of mountain bikers to each of the 3 events. Kilbroney has been recently developed into a mountain bike trail centre with significant investment in new trails. This event helped to showcase those trails as they were just about to be officially opened. This venue will also host the upcoming World Police and Fire Games which is due to kick off in August 2013. Glyn O’Brien has been co-ordinating the festival and helping to put the infrastructure in place for the WPFG. This weekend was a test event for the games as there will be a cross-country and mountain bike event held on the same weekend in August.
An event field had been setup which accommodated the sign on for the events as well as the start area for the cross-country race and the finish area for the downhill race. Spectators could stand in one spot and watch two events at the same time! Dromara CC had set up a course in among the trees for the youth races which was also used by the senior riders. The seniors had the “pleasure” of starting from the bottom of the field, sweeping around the wide bends before heading up, up and up into the forest along the fire road. There was some nice, fast single track awaiting the riders to help catch their breath but it wasn’t long before they had to climb again up a new section marked into the forest which came back to the main path after a tricky descent past “green rock”. From here they went through a stream, up a slope and then descended to join a section of track near the tarmac road. It wasn’t long before the climbing began again with a series of switchbacks to get the riders back up to the track and then more climbing again!! When the course joined the tarmac track the Under 14s avoided the next big gravel climb. The rest struggled up that climb to the entrance of one of the developed trails. The trails are too quick so the riders were only given a short section of pleasurably man-made track before being pulled off onto the old downhill track. This section ran along the boundary wall and was flat and full of roots. A really enjoyable section. The track switched back up to the man made trail to cross a new bridge before coming off the trail and back to the natural course through the trees and along the boundary again. This section finished with a short sweeping ride along the council land before dropping through the stream and back to the start line. The finish was in the tiered tarmac area where the youth races were ran from.
Results
here
Photos
Steven Lindsay (Picasa) – here
Alan Gilkinson (Facebook) – here
Bronagh Kirk – here
Paul Anderson (Facebook) – here
