Cyclocross Round 6 – Seacourt, Larne
With Dromara CC recovering from an excellent hosted race at Moira last week it was the turn of Team Madigan to setup and keep the momentum going and they didnt disappoint. First of all they organised a suitable deluge of rain to soften up the course and then lengthened the course slightly with a few more tight turns.
This week in the youth races we had Chloe McCartan putting in an excellent performance in the under 8’s and taking 6th place. Our other supreme performance was Ben Wilson who took second place in the under 14’s with a tough battle from start to finsh.
On to the MTB support race where Martina Hawkins kept her great form from Moira to pick up second place and then had a nosey at the Cross Race – tempted?? lets hope so.
The other two MTBer’s where Marty McAnulty & Graham Beckett who produced some superb riding. Marty managed to squeeze into the top 10 and prove that this MTB malarkey might just be the sport for him with Graham Beckett not too far behind in 13th place.
” I love Muck!”
This brings us on to the cyclocross ‘B’ Race which saw Richard Cowan, Graham Smyth, Paul Mawhirt, Derek Graham & Brian Wilson battle it put once again. John Shanks didnt make a an appearance this week with rumours circulating that he couldnt make it as he was eating his birthday cake – Happy Birthday John and super vets ride in the A race 😉
When the whistle went it was ex DCC rider Ross Galway that raced off into the lead leaving Paul, Graham & Richard chasing from the get go. For the first two laps it was all very close and then Paul started to put a small gap which just grew as the laps went on. Paul has been racing well this year and the steady lap times he put in started to pay dividends as the fast starters were tying up. Paul managed to take his first podium of the year with an excellent third place and show he must be ready for the A race ;-). As for Graham and myself we battled the whole way around the course swapping positions but Graham but in a strong penultimate lap which was enough to take 6th Place with Richard in 7th.
It wasnt all plain season for the third place
That left Derek Graham to finish 11th having started at the back and working his way through. Brian Wilson finished 15th and set about trying to convince Paul Mawhirt to upgrade.
After the B race came the main event and Dromara CC had two of our most skilled CycloCross riders taking the line. Martin Grimely was in the vets and he loves it when it is wet slippy and technical so he can laugh at the other cyclists as they slide about. Here is Martin below just showing off:
I’m going to make this, Im going to make this
I didnt make it – hopefully no one got that on camera
Thankfully Bronagh Kirk was there to capture it beautifully. Not to worry because these things can happen to the most experienced riders and DCC could sleep easy knowing Barry would show everyone how it is done:
Here is a close up:
This is no time for warm up stretching
Well done Graham Beckett for the excellent camera work.
The “A” Race was a cracker race which saw Darnell Moore storming out to lead the race for the first 2 laps before a puncture slowed him down letting Glenn Kinning who has been in sensational form take over the lead and never give it up. However Matt Adair and Alex Donald battled each other lap after lap and started to catch Darnell – finally on the last few laps they came together with Matt Adair bunny hopping the boards and taking 2nd place with Alex capturing 3rd place, Darnell in 4th place with Barry finishing in an excellent 5th place.
Next race is Ormeau Park on 16th November and Results from Larne can be found here
For a further report from Barry you can find it on the forum
