Date: Sunday 1 August 2010
Event: Ulster Series Round 5
Location: Castlewellan Forest
Host club: XMTB McConvey Cycles
The beautiful Castlewellan Forest Park played host to the fifth round of the Ulster Cross Country Mountain Bike Series on Sunday 1 August 2010. This round of the series was organised by XMTB McConvey Cycles who have been closely associated with Castlewellan forest for over a decade developing the trails and running races. For this event the club have been in attendance over a number of weeks creating the course while working closely with the Forestry Service who were due to fell sections of the forest. This lead to some exciting new sections being built and the efforts of the club were very visible on the main course as it twisted and turned, climbed and dropped through the well established forest.
Racing got underway at 11 am with the youth races starting with the Under 8s and Under 10s. Their course was located along the fire road about 5 minutes walk from the car park. This year has seen a surge in the number of youth riders and the Under 8s represented the biggest group with 27 eager faces lined up to take on two laps of their course. The riders were gridded according to the current series standings with the faster riders on the front row setting the pace. Carn Wheelers rider Cathir Doyle lead from start to finish to take his third win in a row ahead of Christopher Curry (Banbridge CC) with Kathryn Doyle (Carn Wheelers) finishing third. Fraser Harrower (Dromara CC) recorded another fourth place with Jack Baird (Banbridge CC) in fifth and Anna Russell (Carn Wheelers) in sixth place.
Once the Under 8s had cleared the course it was the turn of the Under 10s who had 5 laps to complete of the same course as the Under 8s. Again the riders were gridded to help get all 14 started safely. There was no surprise when Banbridge CC rider Mark Buller took the win as this was his fifth win in a row. Drew Armstrong (Dromara CC) completed his fifth ‘second place’ in a row with Craig McCarthy (Castlereagh CC) finishing yet again in third place. It was Fergal McConvey’s first appearance at the 2010 Ulster XC series but the Newry Wheelers rider had a great race to take fourth place. Ben Hanna (Dromara CC) was fifth with newcomer to the series, Ross Ennis, taking sixth place.
The Under 12s race started further down the fire road closer to the lake. They had their own specially designed course which started with a sharp right turn and climb up the fire road. The 8 competitors had 4 laps of this course to complete. The usual battle took place between John Buller and Richard Baird, both from Banbridge CC, with the outcome the same as the other 4 rounds of the series with John taking top spot ahead of Richard. Cian McConvey (Newry Wheelers) took third, his first round of the series this year, with Shannon Buller (Banbridge CC) fourth, the only other rider to complete all 4 laps.
Around noon the next set of competitors gathered at the start line. The seven under 16s set off first to complete two full laps and they were followed a minute later by the six under 14s who had 2 laps of a reduced course to complete. Both sets were allowed an extra bit of time to get through the tricky first section of the course before the Sports Men and Women were set off to complete their two laps.
The Under 14s race saw a close battle between fellow club riders James Curry and Joseph Baird (Banbridge CC) with Joseph taking his first win against James this year. Sean Stewart (Carnegie Cyclones) was third with Conor Kavanagh (Boyne MTB) fourth.
In the Under 16s race Stuart Ballantine had a great battle with fellow club rider Chris Oakley (both from the host club) but it was Chris who took his first win of the series by finishing just over one minute ahead of Stuart with Zak Hanna (Dromara CC) pleased to get his first top three in the series to date.
The largest field of adult riders was in the Sports category with 23 men and 2 women in the bunch. Local rider Barry Kellett took the win with a comfortable lead of over two minutes ahead of Gary Sheils (Cuchulainn CC) who has ridden in the Masters category at Dunmore, with Cathal Doyle (Carn Wheelers) one of the leaders of the Sports series to date taking third. Michael Gordon was fourth with Dromara CC rider Derek Hanna in fifth just seconds ahead of Chris Cameron (North Down CC). In the women’s race it was current leader Gill Smith who took the win ahead of Agata Tamulewicz (MAD mtb).
The club then organised a prize giving for the Under 8s, Under 10s, Under 12s, Under 14s, Under 16s and Sports riders with a winners podium set up at the lake’s edge. There were some nice trophies for the top 3 youth riders with all the competitors in the Under 8, 10 and 12 categories getting a medal from the club. This put a smile on a lot of faces.
The main races for the senior categories then took place around 1:45. In the front row were the Elite men and there was a strong field present with National Elite Champion Robin Seymour (Team WORC), Joe McCall (Focus MTB) who finished 4th at the Nationals, James McCluskey (IMBRC) winner of the National Masters category and Sean Downey (MAD mtb) winner of the National Experts category. In total there were 9 in the Elite men’s race and they had to complete 5 laps of the main course. Lined up behind were the 3 Elite women who were starting alongside the 2 Junior riders, both categories having 4 laps to complete. There were 6 in the Experts Category and 10 in the Masters and they also had 4 laps to complete. The 12 veteran riders (aged 40 or over) had to complete 3 laps of the main course.
In the Elite Men’s race there was a close battle between Robin Seymour, Joe McCall and Banbridge CC rider Gareth McKee who is better known for his downhill skills. These three battled it out staying within touching distance of each other until Joe ‘blew up’ and retired from the race. On the last lap Robin pushed ahead to take the win but the spectators were very impressed to see Gareth finish strongly in second place. James McCluskey was then third with Sean Downey the only other Elite rider to finish.
In the Elite Women’s race Belfast rider Ciara MacManus rode strongly to finish almost 5 minutes ahead of Cait Elliott (UCD) with Val O’Neill (Dromara CC) finishing third. In the Junior race Matthew Adair (Banbridge CC) took the win ahead of the host club’s William Boyd.
In the 4 lap Experts race it was the host club’s Tomasz Michalski who took the win ahead of Maciej “Max” Staroniewicz (EPIC mtb), with Matt Casey, also from the host club, taking third.
In the Masters event it was Motorcross legend Brian Steele (Dromara CC) who took his first MTB win ahead of Rudolf Brinkman (Racing 795) with Rory Walsh (EPIC mtb) in third and Mark McGauley (MAD mtb) in fourth.
In the Vets race William Mulligan (Banbridge CC) was missing his rivals Paul McMenamin, who wasn’t able to compete, and Robbie Lamont, who was organising the race, which gave William the opportunity of a win which he did in great style finishing over 4 minutes ahead of John Doris (EPIC mtb) and fellow club mate Simon Curry. Andrew Burns (Juiced Orchard) finished fourth just ahead of John Bogues (Phoenix CC) with Geoff Brown (Dromara CC) in sixth place.
After racing was complete the riders were able to tuck into the great spread of sandwiches, buns and biscuits washed down with plently of tea and coffee laid on by the hard working volunteers from the club. Once all were full the club then organised the prize giving for the senior categories with the backdrop of the Castlewellan lake making for great photographs. The prize giving just got finished before the first rain of the day started.
Many thanks to XMTB McConvey Cycles for all their hard work in setting up and running this event and to the course designers Graham Boyd and Robbie Lamont for creating an exciting MTB circuit.
The next round of the UlsterXC series will be on Saturday 4 September 2010 at Craigavon Lakes hosted by Apollo CT . For more details see www.ulsterxc.com
Full results here
More photos here
Commissaire(s): Martin Grimley, Ciara MacManus
Report & photos by Martin Grimley