Dromara showing plenty of quality at the MTB XC

First round of the UXC series occured yesterday in Kilbroney park. In case you didn’t know, it was hosted by our own club. Martin put a call out to volunteers for this event and many turned up over the Friday, Saturday & Sunday to help setup and run an exceptional professional race that Dromara CC should be very proud off.

Just a few mentions great riding from the champ to take 4th place in the elite senior 1 race, a top 10 finish for Paul Mawhirt in the S3, a brilliant 2nd place for Peter Richie, 2nd female in the S3 for Stephanie Williamson, 1st place for Kelly Wilson in the U14’s, 1st place for Ben Wilson in the U12’s and finally 2nd & 3rd wrapped up in the U8’s by Ryan Williamson and Gerry Thompson.

Race Reports by Barry Kellet:
Forced into the murky world of Senior 1 for this season, the few days before hand were spent convincing myself that there was no pressure on myself to do anything. Quickly followed by huge panic at the thought of racing the Titans of Irish XC. Having to wear the Shamrock Jersey and possibly putting up the most pathetic showing ever seen in its history. By the the morning of the race I had settled back into the mindset of “no pressure”… “Enjoy it”…

Or so I thought.

Five trips to the toilet later said it all. I was bricking it. Literally.

2pm and we lined up. Small talk and joking all done, the whistle went and off we went. All very civilized. No maniacs pressing the self destruct button just yet. Out of the field and I am sitting 2nd and pretty comfortable, how strange. Roger Aiken cruises past, I glance and wonder if he has even started breathing yet. Matt Adair ups the Ante and follows his pace. Early Leader Jim haide slips a little bit back, Graham Boyd pushes past into the horsetrack descent as my heart rate hits its max and my vision goes blurry.
Not so bad, 4th so far and on the XMTB wizards wheel.
“I’ll sit here and steal his lines and smash him next lap round”. #topplan

Graham had a little slip and suddently Tomasz Michalski, Gareth McKee and Glenn Kinning all rake past so I push past Graham and try to stay with them. Its hard work, but nobody is steaming away just yet apart from Matt and Roger. Eventually its Tomaz, Graham and myself battling away with Tomasz having a few issues on lap 2 and sinking back losing sight of us. As the race went on, my 10-20 second lead over Graham held well up until lap 4 when the pressure started to tell. Struggling with S3 and S2 traffic and the immense workload, eventually the whippet was back up with me. But it wasnt so bad as we were closing in on Glenn Kinning and Adair. Unfortunately for the Kinning Cycles man, a puncture put an end to his race. Matt appeared to be slowing, and despite me hitting every obstacle and almost losing it 4 or 5 times on that lap, we caught up with him through the start finish area and passed him onto the climb. 3rd Place! Get me!

I knew it was coming, and in hindsight I should have been cleverer but when Graham attacked on the final big climb at the death and I went to respond, i am pretty sure i heard something inside my wee engine go “POP”. And with that, he was gone. Like water down a hill. Barring a miracle or a mechanical with his specialized, it was all over. Miracles don’t happen. And his crappy spesh held together. Flips sake.

Anyway, 4th was well beyond all my expectations for the day so I am over the moon with the result, but of course, I am never actually happy.

As for the rest of the guys. Massive Kudos to John Shanks making the step up to S2 and toughing it out with the strong men in probably the most competetive and combative race group. Plenty of other impressive performances, a wee mention for Bryce Hetherington also stepping up to S3, apparently a guilty conscience over racing the B race at ormeau park? And Peter Ritchie coming in 2nd place in the Senior 4 race. Not bad for someone carrying the Ebola virus.

Ben Wilson had a super race in U12, holding the lead, just losing the lead, and retaking it just before the finish to nab a brilliant win.

Lots of other excellent performances, but we will wait for the full results before doing a full post mortem.
I do know Richard Cowan and John McGuigan were slugging it out in S4 right to the end.

Report by John McGuigan

My S4 race report.

Anyone that read any of my cyclocross race reports would remember there was a recurring theme running through all of them, my lack of basic off-road skills and my fear of even minor obstacles. So why would I even attempt to do XC, which is on a totally different planet again, requiring even more skills to contend with bigger and scarier “stuff”. I don’t have the answer to that question…stupidity, madness, or possibly something even worse ?

It still surprises me that I started on Sunday. After helping to rake the course on the previous Friday, I couldn’t believe what Martin was asking of the riders. Every section seemed to be worse than the previous one, with the exception of the gravel and grass area leading to the finish. The big hill, while nothing to look forward to, in my mind was the next best part of the course. After it became obvious that Martin was not allowing “changes” to the course to suit me, I decided that I “might” not race. My next test would be the practice on Saturday, after which I would make a decision. Unfortunately, too many other things were happening and I didn’t make the practice. So on to Sunday morning.

All kitted out and ready to go, and time for one practice lap, after which I would have to decide either to race or offer my services as a marshal. The practice lap didn’t go well. I wasn’t at all happy, I think I did more walking than riding. Worried that if I race I will make a fool of myself and get shouted at, and I really didn’t like the thought of getting in the way of proper riders, the decision was made not to race. I still don’t know how or why, but I ended up on the start line against all my better instincts.

As is now the norm, when the whistle went, everyone behind flew past me. Onto the hill and I must have been last. I decided to keep it steady and sure enough half way up the hill many riders started to fall away and I made up a few places. After the hill, the rest of the race became a bit of a blur. I can’t even remember how many times I went over the handlebars, at least twice, and there were countless near misses. I did get shouted at by one particular rider, not too polite about wanting to get past. He maybe didn’t understand it was a race, or that in that section I had nowhere to go other than to fling myself of a steep slope. To make matters worse I passed him on an easier section later on, but of course he caught me later on one of the numerous tricky parts and wanted past again 🙂

Thankfully, the first lap went better than the practice lap, not by much, just a little. The second lap was better again, but still a long way off being good. I did make up another 4 or 5 places on the 2nd lap, but only because I was able to run some parts quicker than others !

So, I did get shouted at. And can you make a fool of yourself if there are no witnesses ? Thankfully the course was not lined with spectators so my many mishaps went unnoticed ( i hope )

Speaking to the club xc guru, I got no sympathy at all. “Sure what do you expect if you don’t practice xc” Fair enough point I suppose.

There were plenty of other Dromara riders competing, with wins by Kelly and Ben Wilson, a gutsy performance by BVK in S1, John Shanks first outing in S2, Paul Mahwirt a top 10 finisher in a big field of S3, and Peter Richie 2nd in S4. There were plenty of other notable performances, full results can be found here

I have to also say that Dromara CC put on an exceptional day for all the participants and spectators, with Martin again being the master of organization and many willing helpers from the club to ensure everything was in place on the day.