Winter Trail Quest Series Round 4
[Daft Eddie's, Killinchy]
The original date for Round 4 of Dromara Cycling Club's trail quest for 2012/2013 was meant to be on 10 February 2013. This date was postponed due to forecasted heavy rain which was a good call as the weather that day was awful. The off-road cycling calendar is a busy one and finding another date was not easy as there was a cross-country mountain bike series to avoid, mother's day and St. Patrick's day. The rescheduled date was the 24 March and it was back to the original headquarters at Daft Eddie's in Killinchy. On the Thursday evening in the week leading up to the event there was heavy snowfall across large parts of Northern Ireland with never seen before heights of snow fall and snow drifts. Householders were left without power and unable to get out of their homes. Event organiser Alan took the decision to go ahead with the event as the snow had not affected the coastline around Killinchy however many of the regular teams could not get to the event to take part. Numbers were well down with just 19 riders taking part. Snow had affected the numbers at round 3 in Saul, Downpatrick back in January 2013.
In contrast to the snowy environment that many were looking out of their windows on the scenery around Killinchy was very spring like with the sun even trying to make an appearance. There was a strong cold easternly wind which the riders had to fight against but in the lea of the wind the day was very pleasant.
For these off-road cycling orienteering events riders can form up into teams of up to 3 to take on either the 2 hour or the 3.5 hour event. Teams were handed a map of the area with markers shown as circles positioned in various locations across a wide stretch of County Down. Teams were also handed a sheet of paper and a pen to complete the questions at these markers. The markers had different point values from 10 to 50 depending on the difficulty in getting to the marker. The first team to start at 10:30 was "The Happy MAMIL's" who have competed in all four of the events in this series. The remaining 10 teams followed at one minute intervals. The first few minutes for each team was spent examining the map, locating any bonus points (co-ordinates only) on the map and then deciding on the best route to pick up the most points. The teams had to get back on time otherwise they would lose some or all of the precious points they had worked hard to accumulate.
Team "Average Joe", formed by solo rider Paul McArthur completed his dominance of the series by achieving the largest number of points in all four rounds. Paul collected 730 points with his nearest rival, "The Sore Losers" picking up 600 points with third place "Jimmy the Kipper" just behind on 590 points.
Once their completed answer forms had been handed in the riders were able to sit down and enjoy the soup, rolls, tea & coffee provided by staff at Daft Eddies while discussing route choice, ease of finding clues and the cold easterly wind with fellow competitors.
Many thanks to Alan for setting up the course and to the staff at Daft Eddies for looking after us. A big thank you to all the riders across all four rounds for supporting the charity, the Northern Ireland Cancer Fund For Children, based at Shimna Valley, Newcastle. The final total will be posted here shortly.
Report and photos by Martin Grimley
IF YOU WISH TO BE KEPT INFORMED OF ANY UPCOMING TRAIL QUESTS PLEASE SEND AN EMAIL TO MARTIN @ DROMARA CYCING CLUB.
martin@dromaracc.co.uk
