MTB’ing, Road Racing, Club Runs & even a bit of running

by Rich · February 29, 2016

The sun comes out and everyone seemed to grab their bike and get out there. So where to start…..how about a bit of MTB’ing a wee report from Paul Hamilton who was all the way over in Sligo taking part in the Connacht MTB Spring League:

Conditions on the day were excellent, frosty when I arrived but the sun soon took the edge off. Was able to ride the race in the Jersey which made for a nice change. Great turn out with fantastic racing in all categories. I was racing with the locals who were keen to hear my thoughts after my practice lap. The course has been setup to be used in their NPS round so technical sections were speed is your friend were plenty but finding that speed in 2nd & 3rd lap proved challenging. Overall very enjoyable race with a final push to finish 2nd. Pressure from Island Wheeler (will find out name on results) towards the finish was good.

Well done Paul on the podium. Next up we will move to Newry were the John Haldane Memorial Race was taking place. Michael Mullan had his debut in the A4 to finish in the top 25. Stevie Irvine and David Dickson taking part in the A3 sportive 😉 ……. I hear that the A4’s caught them. Both guys finishing in the bunch. Nathan gave me a quick report on the A1, A2 race:

In the A race there was me, gavin, Chris and Ronnie. A1s caught in the first lap. There was a good few attacks all day. A group of 4 got up the road and stayed out for about 2 laps. Gavin and Chris did alot of work to pull them back. Gavin gave me a good lead out and brought me up near the front. Unfortunately it was a bit to late to get up to the winners and I only managed to finish top 20th

The bad news was a serious crash just over the finish line at the A3 race where Paul Crossen (Ards CC) ended up in hospital – Everyone at Dromara CC would like to pass on our best wishes and speedy recovery.

This weekend saw the start of the MTB Spring League organised by XMTB and held at Ormeau Park. At the first race we saw Kellett and Broome go head to head. Both showed that the winter training had been paying dividends and both had a tremendous race with their new club tops. It certainly put the pressure on the dads ;-). Well done to Raylee and Aiofe. They are all winners in the under 6 race and Corbin Dobson who took the win for Dromara had a great race – more to come from this youngster I am sure once he moves up the under 8’s.
In the Under 8 race Lexi Broome produced a gutsy effort taking 7th place, In the Under 10’s Caleb Dobson had a real fight on his hands to break into the top 10 and with some excellent riding secured a 9th place.

Ben Wilson continued his comeback with an excellent second place in the under 14’s. In the B race Derek Minnis and myself took to the start line and it was a fast and furious start. The course had held up well considering the awful rain that seems to never go away for long. The results are still to come out but I think I got 5th with Derek not far behind. The joys about racing is you get to learn things at every race – must tighten my handlebars more than 5Nm next time 😉
In the juniors Peter Davison had great race and decided to tackle a tree branch – hopefully a decent set of goggles will be purchased for the next race. This didnt stop him from taking a brilliant 2nd place. In the A race Broome Snr and Kellett Snr were at it again with Davy creating panic in the Kellett camp with an awesome start but with the laps counting down Kellett Snr managed to make his way through the crowd to take 3rd place. Robert Davison was glad to get out on the bike to show these youngsters how it is done.

Finally I hear there was a group of Dromara members sneaking down to test out the Bishops Court Race course although not all expected that they had to run before and after they time trialled it.