MTB Spring League 2010
Round 2
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Xmtb McConvey Cycles MTB Spring League 2010 Round 2 |
Xmtb |
| Sunday 7 March 2010 Ormeau Park, Belfast Ormeau Park in Belfast was again the venue for some exciting off-road racing organised by the County Down cycle club XMTB McConvey Cycles. This was the second of their three Spring Series MTB races which are aimed primarily at youth riders but also giving the older ones a chance to race against one another before the start of the National Point Series races in April. The course was broadly similar to the one last week, held in the trees above the football ground with a course length of approximately one mile. The weather for most of the week had been dry and sunny which had helped to dry out the course making it much faster than the previous round. Robbie Lamont and his team had most of the course set up the previous evening leaving them less work to do on the Sunday morning. The sign on tent had been set up early to start receiving the steady stream of riders from aged 5 to 50. Eamon McConvey was also out early setting up the PA system to provide upbeat turns and announcements to those gathered. Racing started at 11:30 with a large group of twenty under 8s. As is traditional with this series, some of the riders were handicapped based on the results from last week. Six of the top 8 riders from last week, who were present today, were put to the back of the line up and started separately. This meant that they had to work hard to get to the front in only two laps of the mini-course. This proved to be too much a challenge and left Jude Lundy, who was not racing last week, to take the win ahead of Fraser Harrower (Dromara CC), who was 11th last week and Robbie Dugan, who was also not racing last week. Lewis Armstrong and Dean Harvey took 4th and 5th respectively ahead of the first of the time handicapped riders, Caolan McKee. Eight lined up for the 4 lap under 10s race and, as in the under 8s race, some of the riders were moved to the back of the line-up and had to start separately. This affected four riders who had all finished in top half of the table last week. This helped to even out the fitness and skill levels among the group. It was Castlereagh CC's Craig McCarthy, who took the win. Craig had missed the first race but is a seasoned racer having finished 5th in the Irish National Points System 2009. Behind Craig came the four riders who had been time handcapped lead by Banbridge CC's Mark Buller and the Dromara CC rider Drew Armstrong. Stuart Dunlop (Banbridge CC) was 4th ahead of Sam McCluskey (Team Madigan) and sixth was Conor Brines. In the under 12s race, two of the ten riders had a 30 seconds handicap, Shannon Buller (Banbridge CC) and Greg Bell (XMTB McConvey Cycles), and two had a one minute time handicap, Richard Baird and John Buller both from Banbridge CC. John overcame his time handicap over the four laps to finish 5 seconds ahead of Conor Bate who was 8th last week. Behind Conor came Ross Mawhinney, then Richard Baird who finished 2nd last week. Greg Bell from the host club finished 5th this week just 5 seconds ahead of Shannon Buller. Seven lined up for the under 14s race which was 3 laps of the main, one mile, course. Organisers had worked out a range of time handicaps with Aimee Ogilby (XMTB McConvey Cycles) and Joseph Baird (Banbridge CC) on a one minute handicap, Alex Bell (XMTB McConvey Cycles) on a two minute handicap and last weeks winner Ryan Orr (Juiced Orchard) on 2½ minutes. Ryan's handicap only inspired him to work harder as he powered up through the other riders to finish over 30 seconds ahead of Joseph, with Alex finishing third. Mark Evans and Gareth Kerr finished fourth and fifth respectively with Aimee finishing in sixth place just ahead of Jonathan Collins (Dromara CC). The Under 16s race was dominated by the host club with seven out of the nine riders from XMTB McConvey Cycles. As expected the time handicaps for this age group were bigger with last weeks winner Kyle McEwan starting six minutes behind the first riders, Stuart Ballantine had a five minute delay, Claire Oakley had to wait two minutes and Chris Oakley, who was fourth last week, had just a one minute handicap. The one minute delay did not hamper Chris as he finished the 6 lap race strongly, almost 1½ minutes ahead of new recruit Martin McGauley (formely of Carn Wheelers), with the tall Stuart finishing third. Kyle managed fourth ahead of Claire with Curtis Bell repeating his sixth position as per last week. Around 1:30 the adults were then called to the start line. Each of the adults had been fitted with a timing device around one ankle which had been supplied by local company Champion Chip Ireland. This allowed for accurate lap times as well as a race information board showing the rider who had just passed and the number of laps he/she had completed. The line up had swelled from last week with 41 men and 5 women all packed in along the narrow tarmac path. This 'fun' event was not handicapped and the number of laps had been reduced from last week from 10 to 8 however the course was much faster than last week and as a result the whole race was over in just over 40 minutes. From the whistle there was a great battle between Matthew Adair and Liam McGreevy, both from Banbridge CC and Robbie Lamont from the host club who had won last week. For seven laps Matthew and Liam were no more than one second apart with Robbie no more than 20 seconds behind this pair. Only on the final lap did Liam manage to pull away from Matthew to finish a mere 5 seconds ahead of his club mate with Robbie only 11 seconds behind Matthew. Graham Boyd from the host club finished fourth ahead of veteran rider William Mulligan (Banbridge CC) and Phil O'Neill (Dromara CC). Lance McCarthy (Castlereagh CC) was third last week and managed 7th this week with newcomer to racing Tomas Michalski (XMTB McConvey Cycles) finishing in 8th ahead of club mate Matthew Casey. Gary McKee (VC Glendale) finished 10th ahead of Eamon McConvey from the host club with Gareth Blair and Jon Runciman (Banbridge CC) the only others to finish all 8 laps. Finishing in 14th place was Paul Manton who had made his welcome return to racing after taking a break for several years. In the women's race it was last weeks winner, Val O'Neill (Dromara CC) who lead from start to finish. Julie Rea (Chain Reaction Cycles) was second ahead of Florence Millar (North Down CC). Joanne McCallum (Dromara CC) was fourth ahead of Eileen Regan. Congratulations again to XMTB McConvey Cycles for putting on a great event and well done to all the riders. The next round will be on Sunday 14 March 2010 in the same location. Sign on from 10:00. Many thanks to Angela from the club for passing on the list of results (see below). Full results from all races here Chip timed results from the adult races here Report by Martin Grimley |
Photographs by Martin Grimley
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