Ben Reid - 5 times National Champion

July 06

The 2006 Irish National Downhill Championships took place in Rostrevor Forest, Co Down on Saturday 22 nd and Sunday 23 rd July 2006 .

The event, organised by Plush has been described the best downhill event ever held in the island of Ireland . With camera crews from UTV visiting the event on Saturday to take footage of our new European Champion, Joe Ward , as well as a private filming crew spending the day there on Sunday, there was plenty to see as almost 150 riders turned out for the event with hundreds of spectators.

People from near and far attended, with locals shocked at the display riders put on emerging from the trees, under the Red Bull arch and into the finish arena to a large field packed full of spectators, marquees, camper vans, tents and cars with music blasting from the PA for the two days.

The event was a two day event, taking its itinerary from big UK events where riders practice on Sunday and take a timed run in the evening so that riders are placed in the running order of slowest first (Fastest last). Riders who didn’t turn up on Saturday were slotted in as first riders off on Sunday morning, giving riders three timed runs throughout the weekend.

As this event was the National Championships, all was to play for, and here’s how the riders fared.

U14s

Taryan Lewis took the lead on his first run with a 2.56.68, bettering his time on his second run by 2 seconds to clock 2.54.61 taking the win of the day. Bikeology’s Robbie Reid had some mechanicals on Saturday failing to register a seeding time and his first run time of 2.57.78 managed to place him in second position. Fastest qualifer on Saturday, Robert Duggan couldn’t manage to keep his top spot on Sunday but managed a third podium place with only one race run on Sunday clocking a time of 3.01.27. Unfortunately during the U14s second runs, a timing error was spotted by the timers at the finish causing five of the riders to do a third race run! Surprisingly enough the U14s were delighted with this, giving them a third chance to do the business! Credit goes to the timers for spotting the inconsistencies on the clock so quickly.

U16s

Fastest rider of the season Ewan Doherty clocked a 2.29.74 in qualifying, however when it came to his race runs, The Doc just managed to hold on to his first place by a fraction of a second. As Epic’s Colin Franklin crossed the line on his second run, this put him into first position by 100 th of a second, however, Ewan then managed to just knock him off the hot seat registering 2.32.27 against Colin’s 2.32.43. A great race from both guys. Killarney’s Jason Murphy came across the line to keep his seeding position of third registering a time of 2.34.10 taking him a spot on the winner’s podium.

Ladies

Newcomer to the race scene and local girl, Maeve Baxter managed to surprise the crowd and make the locals happy by taking Gold in the ladies category with a time of 3.20.70, leading the ladies category by 28 seconds! A great result for Maeve. Regular Michele, feeling the pressure registered a faster time in her second run but it wasn’t fast enough and only managed second on the winner’s podium. Third placed rider, TC Racing’s Aoife O’Donoghue closed a 4.38.50 on his first run, crossing the line after crashing on the course. Aoife hurt her neck in the crash and taking no risks, paramedic Paul Hardy called the ambulance and Aoife was taking to hospital for further examination however managed to make it back to the race course to pick up her third placed trophy! Glad to hear your ok Aoife!

Vets

The highly competitive vet’s field saw Banana Man Carl Young, Epic’s Richie Byrne, 021’s Dave McManus and Michael Kirk battle it out for top positions. Carl took the Gold by five seconds with a time of 2.52.94. Richie Byrne took second position on 2.57.58, weighed down my a mouth full of dirt after a crash and Dave McManus clocked a time of 3.00.11 in his first run to take third. Unfortunately Michael Kirk’s 3.15.29 wasn’t enough to give him a place on the winner’s podium!

Supervets

Epic’s Peter Popham took the win registering a time of 3.33.69 in his second run, only three seconds ahead of Chain Reaction’s Derek Cowan who registered 3.36.87. A very exciting race between these two guys!

Supervets was missing the big name of TC Racing's Tom Clogher following a short spell in hospital, however Tom made it to the event to cheer on the rest of the TC Racing crew. Glad to see you out and about Tom!

Senior

A packed senior category with almost 50 riders saw Plush’s Ciaran Steger Hoey take the win of the day, clocking a time of 2.35.31 on his second run. Mark Tiernan from Dublin took second place with a time of 2.38.85 with local lad and course builder, First Tracks/Revolution’s Mark Lennon taking third position with a fast second run clocking a time of 2.39.36. 021’s Sean Murphy and Alfred Grigorjevs took fourth and fifth respectively.

Master

The pressure was on as new European Master champion, Plush’s Joe Ward was out to prove his title however crashes on both race runs meant Joe only managed second position with a time of 2.31.44, not quick enough for Marty McGuigan’s 2.29.60, the fastest time in the Masters category awarding Marty’s the Gold Masters category. Mark Dickson, cheered on by eight year old son Jake managed to take third position with a time of 2.36.44.

Junior

A crash on Sunday morning practice meant Dan Wolfe was unable to race after clocking a qualifying time of 2.22.66. TC Racing’s Richard Smith crashed on is first run, but put in a time of 2.24.32 to take first place in the junior category, followed by Revolution/First Track’s Seanan O’Riordan with a time of 2.27.18. Cathal Hicky took third place with a second run time of 2.32.53. Richard was also presented with the Joe Ward Perpetual Trophy, a new award in recognition of his success.

Elite

18 riders battled it out for the title of Irish National Champion and that title went to holder, Ben Reid. Ben registered a 2.17.31 as fastest time of the day in his first run, only to come down on his second run and break the record even further registering a time of 2.15.68. A fantastic result from Ben. Congratulations. With two riders sharing the 2.23 mark after the second run, Andy Young and Glyn O’Brien both stepped it up a pace after the second run however it was Andy Young who came out on top registering 2.19.50 on the clock, one of only two riders to beat the 2.20 barrier with Glyn O’Brien registering 2.20.76 to take third position. It’s worth noting that riders placed 4 th-6 th Stephen McClintock, Dale McMullan and Wallace Erwin shared the 2.26 mark, while riders 7 th-10 th shared the 2.27 mark Michael Cowan, Darren Quille, John Lawlor and Jamie McCullough. A very competitive category and a fantastic race put in by all elite riders!

The craic

Celebrations continued into the early hours of the morning as the local crew attended a barbecue in Sean Campbell’s house which continued into Rostrevor to the Fiddlers Green Festival to take in some of the craic and ceol!

Thankfully no-one was seriously injured at the event, however, the organisers were relieved they put up the crash netting in the finish arena as most senior riders made use of it. It’s worth mentioning that a lot of top riders were missing from the event, Dan and Gerard Wolfe, Andy Smith, Ricky Lawrence, Karl O’Sullivan plus a few others. Hope to see you all out on the bikes soon lads!

Lots of people set up their own stalls at the event – we had OB ’s bargains, Glyn O’Brien’s bargain table trying to get rid of anything he could, as well as Ian McIntyre’s wife Lesley and her friend carrying out sports massages in a marquee in the finish arena.

Pride of place however, was Dale McMullan’s mechanical services, who even though he managed to take 5 th place, still had time to help all the riders out with their mechanicals. A big thanks to Dale from anyone he pulled out of a hole!

The fan clubs were out in force at the weekend. We had John Lawlor’s fan club, which consisted of his Mum and Wendy! Anne could be heard cheering at the top! We also had Richard Smith’s fanclub of his mum, dad, brother injured Andy and the rest of the TC racing crew. But the biggest fan club of all had to be Ewan Doherty’s. Ewan had ‘all the ladies’ shouting out for him throughout the day…. Maybe his concentration may have lapsed slightly to nearly make him miss his first place!

Another presentation was made following the awards at the end of the evening. This presentation was to Joe Ward in recognition of his success at the European Championships in Italy a few weeks ago. Joe was presented a Hope disc with 'Joe Ward European Champion 2006' cut out of the disc.

Not everyone is aware that because it’s a national championship certain riders need to be drug tested and officials come and spend the day until they get a ‘sample’ from the top riders crossing the line, this naturally has to be witnessed! These riders were the top two lady riders as well as 1 st, 4 th and 6 th place mens riders. As Ben had a podium position to take up, the drug testers kindly escorted him to the marquee to collect his prize, however Ben produced the goods when he got back from the podium. But when all the marquees were down, tape was down, the red bull arch was deflated and the field was empty, apart from Stephen McClintock and Wallace Erwin, who where still with the drug testers and just couldn’t perform under the pressure. Additional water was sent for and I believe the drug testers got home before dark!

Thanks

On behalf of the organising crew I’d like to thank the following people

Our main sponsors – Chain Reaction Cycles and Red Bull

All the organising crew – Plush Cycling Club, Colin Finley from Potato Bred, James for the timing on Saturday and Paul O’Donoghue for also helping out, The timers, Tina and Maire and Nicola.

The marshals – Ricky Lawrence, George Doherty , Fiachra O’Riordan, Richard Lennon, Tom Clogher, Dave Molloy and anyone else that helped out throughout the two days with the timing.

Thanks to George Watson, owner of Chain Reaction Cycles for making the presentation.

A big thank you to the Baxter family for the use of their field, which I'm sure we can all agree made the event running a lot easier.

Paul Hardy, our resident paramedic

Nigel Elder, our resident photographer

Cyril McCartney, Michele’s dad for making the trophies

Thanks to the downhill mtb management sub committee for attending and helping out throughout the two days, Jim Smith, Eamonn Lawlor, BrianWolfe and Michael Cowan.

Thanks to the Forestry Service for the use of the forest for the two days.

Thanks to the guys who were doing to uplift, Joe Ward snr, Aaron, Ronan and Chrissie.

Thanks to the Chippy van for keeping us all fed.

Thanks to the chaperones who took the guys to be drug tested after the event as well as Nicola's mum and dad, Pat and Eamon.

A big shout out to the course builders – Simon and Mark Lennon, William Prescott , Sean Campbell, Conor Campbell, Tony Boyle, Liam Baxter and Douggie as well as Stevie Bell and Jonny and Ben Reid for the spectacular jumps in the finish arena.

Lastly but not least thanks to the riders and the spectators, who made the event!

+ anyone else I’ve accidentally left out.

A big thank you to everyone. Without all these people who contributed in some way or another, the event would not have been the success it was, but foremost I’d like to give a big shout out to Joe and Nicola Ward who have worked endlessly to make this event the success it was. Thank you everyone!

Next stop is August 5 th in Wicklow as the Epic Mtb hold their first DH race. More details will be online about the event asap.