Winter League Round 2 - Bigwood

Feb 06

Round 2 of the PLUSH winter league took place on Sunday 12 th February. For this round we had a new venue, Bigwood, just outside Newry, and home turf of Glyn O’Brien (FirstTracks/Revolution). After the record turn out at the first round, the race attracted even more entrants, 124 riders had signed on to race, some more new faces, and some riders who had decided not to race at Moneyscalp. Even I myself had decided to race this round, and with the weather having taken a turn for the worst on Friday, it wasn’t exactly the conditions I had hoped for to make my return to racing.

The track.

The track was fairly short, sub two minutes for the faster lads. Starting on the hillside behind Clady Quarries, it was a sprint through a wide section of track that led down to a massive bomb hole. Out of the bomb hole, and on towards a small step up, followed by a left turn and down towards a sharp S bend section, this could be straight lined, but was slower to do so. From here it was a test of fitness, a pedally section that took us over a fallen tree, followed by a small rock garden, another section of singletrack led to the second rocky section, after a few switchbacks, the track turned a sharp right, just above the quarry face. Through a gap in a stone wall, with another singletrack sprint and across the first fireroad. Back into the woods, with a sharp right hand turn, followed by a sharp left and up over a mound of earth between two trees, from here it was on the pedals again to the left hand turn that led down to the drop, staying off the brakes to keep the speed up and over a jump which led into a right hand berm. From here you were out into a wide section of track, with a few roots to catch out unsuspecting riders, and turn left and drop down into the last berm on the track. This was followed by a sprint across the fireroad and down into the last wooded section, a loose right turn that caught out a few riders, a few pedal strokes, and a rocky left turn that led to the finish line.

Due to the precipitation, the track was greasy, and by the time racing started, the track was beginning to get cut up.

U14

First place went to Kyle Rimmer, who finished with a time of 02.36.270. Marc Potts took second to finish on 02.39.670, third place went to Clarence Ballentine who finished on 02.41.000. Fourth place, and on the same second, went to Paul McGrady, who finished with a time of 02.41.010, with Jake Crean taking fifth to finish on 02.42.190.

U16

Ewan Doherty continues to dominate this category, he put in an amazing time of 01.51.800, a time which would have seen him win the junior category, and would have placed him in 7th in elite. Christy Brown took second place to finish on 02.06.190. Third place went to Jonathon McGlinchy, who had a time of 02.06.770, fourth place went to Matthew Coulter with his time of 02.08.530, and fifth place went to Colin Franklin with his time of 02.08.910.

Vets

Carl Young took his second win in a row today to finish on 02.25.280. Richie Byrne took second place with his time of 02.39.560, followed by Tom Clogher who finished on 02.57.170. Pete Sollick took fourth place with his time of 03.35.450.

Ladies.

Abagail Hogg got her second win in a row today, she finished with a time of 03.01.420. Aoife O’Donoghue took second place to finish on 03.04.870, with local girl, and new comer, Roisin Grant taking third to finish on 03.58.670.

Senior

First place went to Peter McDonagh who finished with a time of 01.54.290. Second place went to round one’s winner, Ciaran Steger Hoey, who finished on 01.57.440, Conor Mansell took third with his time of 01.58.950, followed by Alastair Beckett who took fourth with a time of 02.00.410. Fifth place went to Sean Murphy, who finished on 02.03.000.

Masters

This was the most competitive category of the day. Once again, Kenny Cassells took the win with his second run time of 01.59.130. A great performance by Dicko (Mark Dickson) saw him take second place to finish on 02.00.010, just squeezing out third place man, Joe Ward, who finished on the same second to post a time of 02.00.390. Stevie Bell put in a great run to take fourth place and finished with a time of 02.01.790. Stevie Davidson took fifth place to finish on 02.12.580. I decided to only do one run, and due to lack of fitness, and not having been on my bike too much recently, I was a bit rusty. I washed out on the last berm, and finished in eighth place to finish on 02.19.700.

Junior

With Dan Wolfe still waiting on his new Turner to arrive, Richie Smith was making the most of it, and took his second win in a row to finish on 01.54.490. Second place went to Paul Cummins, who was struggling on a borrowed bike to finish with his time of 01.56.260. Third place went to Seanan O’Riordan with his first run time, still on board Colin Franklins hard tail, to finish on 01.57.160. Foirth place went to David Gordon who finished on 02.06.040, and fifth place went to Andrew Gillis who finished with a time of 02.10.380.

Elite

The hot favourite today was Glyn O’Brien, having the home turf advantage, he took the win to finish on 01.44.330, posting the fastest time of the day in the process. Ben Reid had to settle for second place to finish with a time of 01.46.130. Andy Smith took third place to finish on 01.48.510. Fourth place went to Jamie McCullough, who seems to be getting quicker with every race, he finished on 01.50.230, just squeezing out John Lawlor, who finished on the same second with his time of 01.50.270.

So once again, a big thanks to the PLUSH crew for staging another excellent event, and to Glyn’s mum, and Honcho for helping out. The next round is on the 26 th of Feb at Moneyscalp, hopefully we will have an even bigger turn out. See ya all there!

The IrishDH crew would like to thank Nigel Elder, resident photographer for the report......