Slade Valley, Co. Wicklow
The sun shone for the first round of the 2010 Irish National Points Series of mountain bike racing which took place in Slade Valley, Saggart, Co. Dublin. The host club was IMBRC and they had carried out an enormous amount of work on the circuit including building bridges and laying down gravel. The dry weather in the lead up to the race had greatly helped the rideability of the course which still proved challenging for all riders. Parking was provided in a field just outside the main wooded area which proved perfect for picnics for the spectators while the racing was going on. Given the weather there was a large turn out for the event which put a lot of pressure on the staff manning the sign on tent and lead to some long queues.
As an encouragement to attract youth into off-road racing the organisers had made it free entry for all youth races. The youth races had been advertised as starting at 11:30 however the organisers had made a last minute decision to start these races early which caught out some parents. The race start was up a long fireroad some distance from the sign on area. There were races for the Under 8s, Under 10s, Under 12s and Under 14s which incorporated different course designs for the various age groups. The youth races were all but over by 11:30.
In the 3 lap Under 8s race there was a great representation of riders from Ulster with the dominant Banbridge Cycling Club taking the top 2 spots with Jack Baird and Christopher Curry respectively. Third was Caoimhe May who was followed by Shea O'Kane (Phoenix CC).
The Under 10s race had 3 laps of a slightly longer circuit and it was another Banbridge rider, Mark Buller, who took the win ahead of Craig McCarthy (Castlereagh CC) with Cian May third and Kristof Rael in fourth.
There were just five riders in the Under 12s race who had to complete 4 laps of the same course as the Under 10s. This was another category dominated by Banbridge Riders with John Buller taking the top spot, Richard Baird taking second and Shannon Buller taking fourth. The other two riders were Jamie Kavanagh who was third and Allesandro Martins who came fifth.
There were five riders in the Under 14s race and this time it an EPIC mtb rider, Cian Mulligan who took the win ahead of James Curry (Banbridge CC) and Conor Lavelle (MAD mtb). Joseph Baird (Banbridge CC) was fourth with Conor Kavanagh fifth.
The next set of races started at 12 midday and these were for the main course which was approximately 5 kilometres long. The course had a long fireroad start which went into the forest through a large section of tree roots. From the bright sunlight on the fireroads to the darkness in the forest and the technical terrain, there were quite a few tumbles especially for those who had not raced in this location before. The course was tough with two single track climbs and only a few brief respites onto fire roads.
The Under 16s, Sports Men and Sports Women were all called together to the start line by race organiser Richie Bryne. There was over 50 lined up and all had to do two laps of the course. All adult riders had been given a 'chip' to wear around their ankles as part of the "chipit" timing system. The categories were not set off separately rather there was only one whistle for all 50 to start together which inevitably lead to some 'traffic' at the entrance to the forest.
Four out of seven Under 16s were from XMTB McConvey Cycles and they secured the first four positions with Kyle McEwan taking first ahead of club mate Stuart Ballantine with Claire Oakley third and Martin McGauley fourth.
For the Sports Women's race there were 6 riders with the fastest Agata Tamulewicz (MAD mtb) finishing first, in just less than one hour. Rose Griffin was second with Gillian Ryan third.
The main field was made up of over 50 Sports Men and was won by Dave Kelly, EPIC mtb, with Andras Gercsenyi second and Killin Byrne third. One of the few Ulster riders in this field was Stephen Prentice who unfortunately had a problem with the timing chip and therefore lost his lap and overall times. There were quite a number of DNFs (Did Not Finish) in this category as the newcomers to the sport struggled with the technical terrain.
The main races of the day started at 1:30 pm (see results sheets below). Ten Elite Men lined up for 5 laps of the main course. Wicklow man Robin Seymour (Team WORC) was on form to take the win some 4 minutes ahead of Richard Felle (Thinkbike.ie) with Joseph McCall (Focus MTB) in third, Aidan McDonald (Bikepure) in fourth and fellow Team WORC rider Evan Ryan fifth. Banbridge rider Liam McGreevy (Planet X) who was well up with the leaders after the first lap felt he wasn't on form and pulled out of the race.
There were 5 women in the Elite class and they had 4 laps of the circuit to complete. Melanie Spath (MAD mtb) lead from start to finish with Caitlin Elliott (UCD) finishing second and Jenny McCauley (Bray Wheelers) was third. Ulster rider Ciara McManus, who won the NPS league last year, was fourth. Val O'Neill (Dromara CC) struggled with the tree roots and took a few tumbles but pushed on to finish fifth.
Only four juniors lined up for the 4 lap event, among them was Banbridge rider Matthew Adair, who recently came second in the first round of this years Scottish XC series. Matthew took the win comfortably finishing almost 6 minutes ahead of closest rival Robert Scanlon (Team WORC) and setting the quickest lap of the day. So quick was his finish the organisers had thought he had another lap to do! Brendan Scullion (Westlakes CC) was third with Fintan Hughes (EPIC mtb) fourth.
Twenty riders lined up for the Experts race, among them one women, Shona D'Ardy (EPIC mtb). They had four laps of the course to complete and only 11 of them managed to do so. In the top ten riders, five were from the club EPIC mtb including the overall winner, Maciej Staroniewicz who finished ahead of Stephen Scrivener (DU CC), with James Pittam (The Edge) taking third. Hughie Geraghty (EPIC mtb) was fourth with newcomer to racing Tomasz Michalski (XMTB McConvey Cycles) taking fifth ahead of another EPIC mtb rider Ross McClure. Shona D'Ardy finished 10th.
The biggest field on the day was for the Masters category with 76 riders all lined up. The start was a bit chaotic when a bunch of the riders at the rear of the group didn't notice the front of the group slow down and subsequently caused a pile up. With thankfully no injuries or mechanicals they all got up and raced on. Last year's NPS League winner Oisin Boydell (MAD mtb) took the win just ahead of Asa Redmond (Team WORC) with Robert Tobin (IMBRC) in third. Andrew Newman (Team WORC) was fourth, Alfie Wallace (EPIC mtb) fifth and Peter O'Farrell sixth. Sixty nine of the 76 riders completed all four laps.
Almost 30 veteran riders (those aged 40 or more) gathered on the start line for their 4 lap race. John Doris (EPIC mtb) took the win ahead of Ulster rider Paul McMenamin (Leisure Lakes) with Paddy Mackey (Sorrento-Audax) in third. Another EPIC rider Eoin Keith was fourth, with McCabe brothers Declan and Jonny (Cuchalainn CC) taking 5th and 6th respectively. Michael Jordan (IMBRC) was 7th with William Mulligan (Banbridge CC) finishing 8th. William had been trailing his close rival Robert Lamont (XMTB McConvey cycles) for the first 3 laps and only managed to pass Robert when he pulled into the technical area to check his rear tyre. Vinnie Fitzsimons (Team WORC) was 9th, Robert was 10th with Off-Road Commission secretary Fergal Kilkenny finishing just outside the top 10.
All in all a great turn out and an excellent course. Well done to IMBRC.
The next round of the NPS will take place in Shronaboy, Glenflesk, Killarney on Sunday 25 April 2010. Host club Killarney CC. For more details see the website http://www.irishxcmtb.com
Report by Martin Grimley
Photos by Stephen Prentice (Banbridge CC)
