Winter Trail Quest Series Round 5
[Shimna Valley]
The fifth and final round of Dromara Cycling Club's Winter Trail Quests took place on Sunday 29 January 2012 from the Children's Cancer Care home at Shimna Valley in Bryansford. All proceeds from the five round series were being donated to this charity and it was fantastic to see another great turn out at this round despite the wet conditions. Dromara CC have been running these mountain bike orienteering events for many years with this charity being the benefactor for over 5 years now.
Sign on took place in an out building beside the main centre with staff laying on tea and coffee for the riders before they set off. It wasn't long before the car park was full of vehicles and bikes as 93 riders forming 44 teams gathered up waiting for their map and answer sheets. Once they got their maps they had to work out the best route to collect the most markers possible before returning to base within the set time limit. This round had 4 teams taking on the 2 hour event which suited the youth riders in those teams, with the other 40 teams taking on the 3.5 hour event. There were 29 markers laid out across a wide area from Castlewellan to Newcastle and across the foothills of the Mourne mountains. It was a shame the weather was closed in as this area has some stunning views which were hidden by low clouds and driving rain.
First team away was "Warren's team" at 10:31 and they were followed one minute later by team "Bert and Fred" with every team separated by one minute intervals. The markers had point values from 10 to 40 with the only '40' being a bonus marker which was given as a grid reference rather than a circle on the map.
The weather made for a tough day out on the bike with nearly all teams returning well within their time limits, glad to be out of the rain. They returned to hot soup, sandwiches and treats laid on in one of the log cabins by the staff at the centre.
As this was the final round there were prizes to hand out which had been kindly donated by local cycle shops. The club are very grateful to them for their continued support of this series over the years.
Winner of the 2 hour event was father and son team "Young Gun & Old Canon", Paddy and Fraser Harrower who had attended all five rounds. For the 3.5 hour event third prize went to team "Jimmy the Kipper", with representatives Alywnne Shannon and Mike Barton. From the hasty totting up on the day it was calculated that there were joint winners of the series between team "The Losers" (Alan McMullan, Dennis McMullan and Stewart Moore) and solo rider Graham Boyd "The X-men". They decided among themselves which of the prizes to take away. Later that evening when all sheets were counted it turned out that Graham was the overall winner of the 2011/12 trail quest series and congratulations to him.
Over the five rounds the riders had raised £2,700 for this worthwhile cause. Many thanks to all the riders for their support.
Many thanks to Trevor Annett for setting up and running the event.
Report by Martin Grimley
Photos by Andrea Harrower and Martin Grimley
IF YOU WISH TO BE KEPT INFORMED OF ANY UPCOMING TRAIL QUESTS PLEASE SEND AN EMAIL TO MARTIN @ DROMARA CYCING CLUB.
martin@dromaracc.co.uk
