Date: Sunday 23 May 2010
Event: Ulster Series Round 2, Irish NPS Round 4
Location: Magheramorne
Host club: Team Madigan
Round 4 of the Irish National Points Series (NPS) mountain bike race took place on Sunday 23 May 2010 at Magheramorne Quarry between Carrickfergus and Larne in County Antrim. This event also doubled up as Round 2 of the Ulster XC series which was just launched in 2010.
As per the previous four years at this venue the sun shone and the riders were reaching for their sun cream on what was probably the hottest day this year so far. The host club was Team Madigan who has been working hard in the run up to this event setting up the course with the kind permission of the land owner Lafarge. It is still hoped that this location will be turned into a home of mountain biking in the near future.
With the great weather and an increase in the attention being paid on cross-country mountain bike racing throughout Ireland a good turn out was expected and indeed around 180 riders signed on, up from 106 the previous year. Sign on took place in the boat club which has adequate parking and toilet facilities. The racing took place in the quarry itself and the organisers had set up three separate course, one for the under 8s and under 10s, one for the under 12s and under 14s and the main circuit which was approximately four miles in length. The course stands up well to wet weather but given the recent dry weather, riders were confronted by dust clouds instead. Racing was administered by Bill Mackness, Steven Stewart and a small team of helpers from the host club. They had organised a small caravan at the start/finish line for administration and on the microphone they had Ritchie Bryne (Epic MTB) providing entertaining commentary.
Racing got underway at 11:30 am with the Under 10s race and they had to complete 4 laps of the mini circuit. There were 9 riders in this race, which was coincidently the same number as last year, and it was last year’s winner of the Under 8s race, Mark Buller (Banbridge CC) who repeated his win in the Under 10s race. Second was Kristof Rael with Drew Armstrong (Dromara CC) in third. Craig McCarthy (Castlereagh CC) was fourth ahead of Max Melville and Ben Hanna, both from Dromara CC.
Once the under 10s were finished it was the turn of the under 8s and, as expected, there was a large field of enthusiastic cyclists, 24 in total. They had to complete two laps of the mini course although quite a number of them found the stony conditions difficult with lots of falls and some tears. No such problem for race winner Jack Baird (Banbridge CC) as he finished 6 seconds ahead of club mate Christopher Curry. Cathir Doyle was third, Sam McKnight was fourth and it was another Banbridge rider, James Buller who took fifth. Morgan Steele and Lewis Armstrong, both from Dromara CC were 6th and 7th respectively.
The next set of races started just after noon with the under 16s lined up to complete 2 laps of the main course. As per the previous round this category was dominated by one club, XMTB McConvey Cycles, who had 5 out of the 10 riders. Unsurprisingly the top 3 were all from this club with Kyle McEwan taking the win ahead of club mate Stuart Ballantine who finished ahead of Claire Oakley. Brother Christopher Oakley was 4th ahead of 5th place Zak Hanna (Dromara CC).
The eight under 14s had 4 laps of the small course to complete and it was James Curry (Banbridge CC), winner of the Under 12s race back in 2009, who took the win in the Under 14s race ahead of Conor Kavanagh (MAD Mtb) and Marlena Drozdziok. Alex Bell (XMTB McConvey Cycles) was 4th ahead of Conor Kavanagh (Boyne MTB) who was 5th.
The under 12s had to complete 2 laps of the small course which took in large sections of the main course. Lined up were 9 riders and it was last years winner of the Under 10s race, John Buller (Banbridge CC) who took the win in the Under 12s race ahead of club mate Richard Baird and Jamie Grifferty (Boyne MTB). Greg Bell (XMTB McConvey Cycles) was 4th and Shannon Buller (Banbridge CC) was 5th.
The first of the adult races also took place just after 12:00 with the sports (men) and women’s race with fields of 27 and 7 respectively. Both had to complete two laps of the main course. Clouds of dust rose as the adults pulled away from the start line to tackle the course which included a number of steep drops and a bomb hole, which caught a few riders out. The course had been well marked out with old fire extinguishers to tie the tape to, new sign boards throughout however there was one point on the circuit where the signage was not quite clear enough and resulted in a few riders using the under 12s / under 14s course. They managed to miss out the ‘lake’ feature where the riders cycled through a section of track which was underwater which provided a welcome relieve from the heat and a great photographic opportunity.
In the sports men’s race it was a one two for Carn Wheelers with Cathal Doyle taking the win ahead of Barry Russell (who is organising the next round of the Ulster League in June). Third to finish was Marcin Drozdziok with the host club’s Simon Stockton finishing fourth, this after completing a 25 mile time trial that morning in less than one hour. Martin Grimley (Dromara CC) was fifth closely followed by Ronnie Ogilby (XMTB McConvey Cycles) with Guillaume Champon in seventh. It was another Carn Wheeler, Barry Young who took eighth ahead of Rael Florry with Chris Cameron (Banbridge CC) in tenth position. In the women’s race it was Gill Smith who took her second win of the Ulster series, ahead of Agata Tamulewicz (MAD mtb).
At 1:30 it was the start of the main races of the day. First to the line were the Elite men with the five riders having to complete six laps of the course. One minute behind the Elite men were the Elite women (4) and Junior riders (3) starting together and they had four laps to complete. The 16 veterans started one minute behind with the 13 Expert riders one minute behind them. The biggest category of riders on the day were the Masters (those aged 30-40) with a field of 34 riders and they started two minutes behind the Experts.
Racing was fast and furious with the heat and the course taking its toll on the riders. Some of the most exciting action was in the feed zone with riders coming in fast to grab fresh bottles of drink from their support crew before heading off into the distance. In the Junior race, Matthew Adair (Banbridge CC) was using the Elite Men, who had started one minute ahead of him, as his target to beat and in doing so set the fastest lap of the day, 19 minutes and 30 seconds and helped him to secure another win in the Junior category ahead of Robert Scanlon (Epic MTB) with William Boyd (XMTB McConvey Cycles) in third. In the Elite Women’s race there was another great contest between Mel Spath (MAD mtb) and Cait Elliott (UCD) with Mel winning this one. Val O’Neill (Dromara CC) was third with Shona D’Arcy (Epic MTB) fourth.
In the Vets race it was the expected, highly competitive tussle between Robert Lamont (XMTB McConvey Cycles), William Mulligan (Banbridge CC) and Paul McMenamin (Leisure Lakes) with Paul taking his second win of the Ulster Series and Robert beating William this time. These three all finished within three minutes of one another. Fourth was Vinnie Fitzsimon (Team WORC), fifth was Michael Dardis (Epic MTB), with Joe Jones (IMBRC) in sixth.
In the Experts race Matt Slattery (Killarney Cycling Club) justified the distance he had travelled to get to the venue with a great win ahead of Tomasz Michalski (XMTB McConvey Cycles) who is getting better every race. Matthew Blayney (North Down) was third with Tadhg Griffin (IMBRC) fourth, not far ahead of Colm Mullen (Team WORC) with Niall Clarke (Cuchulainn CC) sixth, and Maciej Staroniewicz (Epic MTB) seventh.
The top 10 Masters were all from non-Ulster clubs with Kevin Stanley (IMBRC) having back to back wins with the first round of the Ulster XC series (Round 4 of the NPS). Kevin finished of club mate Robert Tobin with Oisin Boydell and Richard Closek, both from MAD mtb, finishing third and fourth respectively. David O’Neill (Team WORC) was fifth, with Racing 795’s Rudolf Brinkman sixth, Rory Walsh (Epic MTB) seventh . Dave O’Shea (IMBRC) eighth, Simon O’Connor (MAD mtb) nineth and Adam Wojnar (EPIC mtb) tenth.
The Elite Men were the last to finish on the lap as they had six laps to do and it was a shame that many of the spectators had packed up and left the course because they missed a superb finish to this race between Evan Ryan (Team WORC) and James McCluskey (IMBRC). Evan finished less than a bike length ahead of James in the sprint finish. Richard Felle (Thinkbike) was third with Graham Boyd (XMTB McConvey Cycles) fourth and Sean Donnelly (Dromara CC) fifth after suffering another puncture.
After the racing the competitors were able to tuck in to the great food laid on by the club up at the boat club. After which the prize giving took place with an additional bonus of a series of spot prizes of gift vouchers kindly donated by Chain Reaction Cycles. Many thanks to Team Madigan for all their hard work in running this event. The next round of the Irish National Points Series will be held in Ballycuggaran Woods outside Killaloe, County Clare on Sunday 6 June 2010. The next round of the Ulster XC series will take place in Davagh Forest near Cookstown on Saturday 19 June 2010. For more details see www.ulsterxc.com or www.irishxcmtb.com
Full results here
Commissaire(s): Martin Grimley and Raymond Beers
Report & photos by Martin Grimley
Photos: here