Lady Dixon Park, Belfast
hosted by XMTB McConvey Cycles
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MTB NPS Round 6 Lady Dixon Park, Belfast hosted by XMTB McConvey Cycles |
Xmtb |
| Sunday 31 May 2009 Lady Dixon Park, Belfast Summer finally arrived which coincided perfectly with XMTB McConvey cycles hosting the 6th round of the Irish Cross Country National Points Series at Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon Park in south Belfast. This was a hastily re-arranged venue after the club was unable to run an event at the much loved Castlewellan forest. The club had worked closely with the local council and park management to arrange what parts of the park they could use and then in the days leading up to the event they had spent an enormous amount of time preparing the course itself. The good weather also helped to dry out the sticky parts of the course around the beautifully manicured park. The club were also using a “belts and braces” approach to race timing with three systems operating on the day: the laptop timing system brought up by Fergal Kilkenny, the Red Tag timing system involving electronic tags worn on the legs of the riders and the traditional pen and paper approach. There was ample car parking which was unfortunately not filled as it should have been for such a superb event. As per the last round at Magheramorne there was a large representation of southern riders. First away at 11:30 were the under 10s with the 8 riders battling around the mini course. John Buller (Banbridge) took the win comfortably ahead of fellow club mate Stuart Dunlop with unattached rider Brandon Breen completing the podium. Joel Smyth (XMTB McConvey cycles) fell at the start but managed to get back up and finish fourth. Right behind the under 10s went the under 8s with 9 riders on the start line. It was another member of the Buller family, Mark Buller (Banbridge) who dominated this event. Mark was chased all the way by young Dromara rider Drew Armstrong who was back to winning ways after his mishaps at the last round in Magheramorne. Completing the under 8 podium was the young female rider Niamh McGiverigan also from the Banbridge club. At midday under the strong sun with temperatures around 24oC the six under 16s lined up to complete three laps of the main course. Five clubs were represented but all eyes were on Banbridge’s Matthew Adair who has won the last three rounds and Robert Scanlon (WORC) who was Matthew’s closest rival. From the whistle Matthew took to the front and had stretched out a good lead after the first lap. Matthew went on stretching this lead to finish over 3 minutes ahead of Robert with Stuart Ballantine from the host club finishing third. Behind the under 16s was a somewhat reduced field of 17 sports riders both male and female. The number of female sports riders was up from the last round but the number of males was greatly reduced. It was a close fought race between Simon O’Connor (MADmtb) and Dave Hickey who finished 15 seconds apart after 3 laps. Behind these pair was Matthew Casey from the host club followed by Paul Barry (IMBRC) and Ronnie Ogilby also from the host club. Ronnie had to race without his close rivals Martin Grimley and Stephen Prentice who were watching from behind the barriers. In the female race it was newcomer Jana Mrazirova (unattached) who finished 12 seconds ahead of Caroline Patterson (Dromara CC) who has only just returned to mountain bike racing and was still working on her off-road skills. Caroline had unluckily managed to go over her handle bars and required first aid from the St John Ambulance team after her race. Behind Caroline was Julie Rea (Chair Reaction Cycles) and Nichola Oldham (Banbridge CC). The under 14s started one minute behind the sports riders and had two laps of the full course to cover. Out of the seven riders lined up, five were from the host club and it was the club’s Chris Oakley who finished in first place. Chris had already won the previous three rounds of the league. Behind Chris was Zak Hanna (Dromara CC) followed by Martin McGauley (Carn Wheelers). The under 12s set off after the under 14s for a short loop through the trees. Of the eight lined up, five were from Banbridge Cycling Club including fastest on the day James Currie who finished well ahead of Greg Bell from the host club with Eoghan O’Reilly (Epic MTB) the series leader finishing third. Rachel Mayne (Banbridge) finished two seconds ahead of Cian McConvey (Newry Wheelers). At 1:45 it was the turn of the adult competitive races with the Elite Men first to line up. The seven riders lined up were a veritable ‘who’s who’ of the elite cycling world with only one new face in the line up, that of vet John Bogues who had felt that since he had ridden over to the event from his home, and it was such a nice day and a great venue that he would sign up for 8 laps!! From the whistle this was a fast paced race with all riders giving their all despite the heat. It was series leader, Peter Buggle (Rocky Mountain) who has won 3 out of the last four rounds who lead from the start to finish under 2 hours and 6 minutes faster than legend Gerry McCabe (Cuchuliann). Less than a minute behind Gerry was road race start Glenn Kinning (Castlereagh CC) who finished only seconds ahead of Aiden McDonald (Bike Pure-Revolution). Evan Ryan (Team WORC) was the only other rider to complete 8 laps. The Elite Women and Juniors started together both facing six laps of the full course. Ciara McManus (unattached) completed a hat trick of wins finishing well ahead of closest rival Valerie O’Neill (Dromara CC) with Silva Gallagher (Epic mtb) finishing third. In the two man junior race it was road racing star Peter Lilley (Banbridge CC) who finished over 13 minutes ahead of host club’s William Boyd. Next up were the 10 Expert riders who also had to face 6 laps of the excellent course. Bikepure-Revolution’s Ray O'Shaughnessy made his hat trick of wins finishing a mere one second ahead of David O’Neill (Swords CC). Behind David was Dave O’Brien (IMBRC) who had been series leader up until Sunday who finished at the same time as Ross McClure (Epic mtb). The only Ulster rider in this group was Ross Galway (Dromara CC) who finished 7th. By far the biggest group of the day was the Masters with 26 lined up at the start line over half of which were southern riders. Robert Tobin (IMBRC) lead this 6 lap race from start to finish to notch up his first win of the series coming in over a minute ahead of series leader Oisin Boydell (MADmtb). Riding a brilliant race was Banbridge’s Liam McKevirigan who finished third, this after cycling to the event that morning and then cycling home afterwards. Well done Liam. Other Ulster riders in this category were Darren Campbell (XMTB McConvey cycles) who finished 6th and Phil O’Neill (Dromara CC) who finished 8th. Fergal Kilkenny (MAD mtb) who had supplied one of the timing systems finished 10th. The last to go on the day were the 16 strong veteran riders who had 5 laps to complete. As before this was the usual battle between Paul McMenamin (Leisure Lakes), William Mulligan (Banbridge CC) and Robbie Lamont (XMTB McConvey cycles). Robbie had been very instrumental in the design of the course which may have been a helped him to lead from start to finish. Paul came home just over a minute behind Robbie with William just over 30 seconds back. John O’Reilly (Epic mtb) was fourth, Vinnie Fitzsimons (Team WORC) fifth and Simon Curry (Banbridge CC) sixth. At the back of the field the big battle of the day between club team mates William Forsythe and Maurice Mayne (Banbridge CC) finished with Maurice coming home 2 seconds ahead of William and both riders sprawled out on the grass gasping for air and water! Well done to all the organisers at XMTB McConvey cycles for putting on a very professional event. Robbie Lamont did hope that the event could be run at this venue next year and this sentiment was shared by all those gathered today. Especially if the club could organise the same weather !!! More photos here Full results here |
Photos by Martin Grimley
 Under 10s      Sports men  Ronnie  |
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 Caroline receives treatment |
 Caroline receives prize |
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 |
 Elite men |
 Val and Ciara |
 Experts |
 Ross |
 Masters |
 Phil |
 Liam with Paul behind |
 Vets |
 |
 Robbie |
 William, Robbie and Paul |
 Maurice and Willy |
 Phil |