NPS Round 5 - Cloon Wood, Enniskerry

McMullan takes elite win while Seanan registers fastest time of the day!

August 06

The fifth round of the most successful NPS to date was held on Sunday 6th August in Cloon Wood, on the outskirts of Enniskerry. Set in the beautiful Wicklow Mountains the dry weather over the past few weeks made the track so far one of the trickiest of the year attracted almost 130 riders to see how Epic MTB's first ever downhill NPS fared.

A shout out to Colin Bright who designed and built the track. A real 'Irish' track with the fastest time of the day 1.51.90 by Seanan O'Riordan.

U14s

Following three podiums in the NPS this year, Gavin Carroll had an incredible second run to take first position in the ZealOptics NPS. Gavin registered a time of 2.12.37, his closest rival Gavin Kelly 13 seconds behind him with a second run time of 2.25.12. Bikeology's Robbie Reid took third position with a second run time of 2.26.11.

U16s

Killarney's Jason Murphy took his first win of the year registering a time of 1.54.82 on his second run, winning the Under16 category by just over 5 seconds! Matthew Coulter took second place on the podium for the third time this year, unable to break the 2 minute barrier with a second run time of 2.00.17. Ewan Doherty, unfamiliar with the third place on the podium, Ewan registered a time of 2.01.01 to complete the winner's podium.

Ladies

National champion Maeve Baxter put in two very consistent runs with a first run time of 3.05.15 and a second run time of 3.05.59 to take first place on the day ahead of her big trip to Whistler! Only 4 seconds behind, Michele Macartney closed a second run time of 3.09.13, settling for second position while TC Racing's Aoife O'Donoghue making a remarkable return from her nationals neck injury to take third position with a second run time of 3.19.55. Congratulations ladies!

Vets

Many may have said the vets category was a foregone conclusion as Epic's Ritchie Byrne practiced every morning, noon and night in order to get the better of Carl, and it seemed to have worked! Ritchie took the win by four seconds with a first run time of 2.12.48 ahead of Carl 2.16.36. David McManus took third place with a time of 2.38.78 to settle for the final place on the podium

Supervets

Unfortunately only two supervets for this year. Local lad Peter Popham clocked the fastest time of the two with 2.32.61 to take first place, whilst Derek Cowan took second place to registering a time of 2.58.40.

Senior

National Champion Plush's Ciaran Steger Hoey turned up again to take his fourth win of the year in the NPS. Following the first run First Tracks/Revolution's Mark Lennon was sitting in first place with a time of 2.00.41, however a good second run gave Ciaran a time of 1.56.39 to take first position, Mark settling for second place. Third place went to Mark Tiernan, missing out on third place by a fraction of a second with a time of 2.00.45. 021 Racing's Sean Murphy took fourth place with a time of 2.01.40 while Alister Maxwell took fifth place with a time of 2.03.67.

Master

European Champion Joe Ward took the 'Glory' (excuse the pun) as he took his second win of the year of the 2006 Irish NPS. Joe beat his closest rival, Stephen Franzoni by almost four seconds with a time of 1.56.86. Stephen Franzoni, back into the Irish racing scene after making his debut at the nationals registered a 2.00.56 on the clock to take second position, while another veteran downhiller, Dave O'Hara came back to take third place with a time of 2.01.72.

Junior

A fantastic run by Seanan O'Riordan on his first run put him in first position with a time that was going to be very hard to beat - in fact impossible to beat as Seanan took the fastest time of the day with a time of 1.51.90, a second ahead of elite winner Dale McMullan. First Tracks/Revolution's Seanan's first win of the year in Junior. Congratulations Seanan. TC racing's Richard Smith took second place with a time of 1.53.12 while Eoin Kane also achieved his best result of the year taking third place with a time of 1.55.35, Cathal Hickey just missing out on a podium position by a fraction of a second to take fourth place with 1.55.66.

Elite

An unusually small elite category with a lot of the big names missing, however, this didn't make it any less competitive as Dale McMullan took the win with a great first run time of 1.52.93, four seconds ahead of second placed Darren Quille who clocked a time of 1.56.77 just ahead of First Tracks/Revolution's Conor Campbell's third place with a time of 1.56.65 giving First Tracks/Revolution three podiums on the day.

Hardtail

Epic awarded prizes for riders on hardtail with XC champion and ex-downhiller making a comeback to take first place with a time of 2.12.18 while Greg O'Callaghan took the junior win in the U16 category with a time of 2.20.70.

The craic

Saturday practice seen plenty of crashes and casualties in the form of Wallace Irwin's broken hand. A trip of A&E and x-rays showed a broken bone in his hand, however, Wallace had to be banned from riding as he tried to sign-on on Sunday for racing!

Unofficial practice on Saturday also brought on some unofficial camping on Saturday evening. The BBQ's got sparked up and the beer and wine started flowing. The car park was full of riders with George's Doc's DH DVD's on display in the car park, followed by the nightly viewing of Big Brother for the girls. A great night's craic was had by all until the wine ran out and the midgies started biting!

A big congratulations to Epic for a great race. It was fantastic to see all the newcomers to the sport as members of the Epic MTB club raced who had never raced before, although I hear some were only allowed permission to be away for only one run, not naming any names 'Don O'Connor'. Vital to the days success were Sean Herilhy and Richie Byrne. However a big shout out to Justin May, Eoin Keith and Brian, aka Jack the lad for helping the ladies out with a timing. Thanks also to Oliver for the PA and radios, making sure Nicola could be heard from near and far. Also to Richie's wife Carol and daughter Sophie for all their help as well as the clean-up crew who I'm told did an excellent job......

Bring on the Blast, 17th September 2006.