Winter League Round 4 - Bigwood

March 06

The final race of the winter series was held on Sunday in Bigwood, just outside Newry. The track was the same as round two, with the alternation that the bottom section was taken out due to the comfort of the timekeepers (plus the mud). Not to hang around here's the lowdown...

U14

Paul McGrady took his first win of the year by 11 seconds with Robert Duggan in second. Marc Potts just missed second position by 1 second but managed third with 2.53.15.

U16

This was one of the biggest categories with almost 30 riders and as usual top spot went to Ewan Doherty. He took the win by 10 seconds with a time of 2.07.12 which could have placed him second in junior. Maybe Ewan should think of a category upgrade for the NPS. Second place went to Jason Murphy who just managed to steal his position with a time of 2.17.70 with Colin Franklin close behind on 2.17.80.

Ladies

Congratulations to TC racing’s Aoife O’Donoghue who took her first win beating second placed Michele by four seconds on a time of 3.36.50. Michele took second position followed by Abagail six seconds behind with 3.46.94.

Vets

The battle of the vets was set to lake place between Richie Byrne and Carl Young, however neither expected Michael White to show up and give them both a run for their money. Carl was winning after the first round, however Michael won the second run with both riders clocking a time within the same second with Carl just coming out on top on 2.43.43 with Michael behind on 2.43.54. Richie was left very close behind in third position on 2.45.29. Peter Popham made an appearance to show he’s not to be forgotten about and took fourth. Tom Clogher was fifth, Derek Cowan on 6 th and Peter Scollick taking 7 th.

Seniors

Conor Mansell battled the elements to take his first win and first position from Dave Molloy. Dave was leading after round one but Conor put in an impressive second run time of 2.06.05 to take first. Epic’s Sean herilhy took third position with 2.10.93.

Masters

Mark Dickson clocked a first run time of 2.08.57 to take first position with some friendly competition from Joe Ward who managed to take second followed by regular Stevie Davidson on third position with a time of 2.22.17.

Junior

Richard Smith clocked an impressive 2.05.65 to take him to first position in the first run, with a hope to bettering his time on his second run, however, an argument with a tree put that to rest. He held onto first position by ten seconds with Karl O’Sullivan behind with 2.14.95 and Seanan O’Riordan held on to third position with a time of 2.17.96.

Elite

Andy Smith took the winners spot with a consistent time of 1.55.34 on his first run and 1.55.76 on his second. This was enough to hold on to first place throughout the competition with Glyn O’Brien coming close on the second run with 1.55.54 to take second and John lawlor on the same second with 1.55.86 to take third position. Congratulations also to Conor Campbell on his 4 th place who just managed to pip Gerard Wolfe with a time of 1.56.60 compared to 1.56.69. How close was that???

The Craic

The Smith brothers both managed to take wins in the juniors and the elite category with the family out in force cheering on the two lads (or maybe it was something to do with the fan club Andy brought along on the day! If memory served me correct, the last time Andy took a win he had some female company cheering him on at the bottom (and I don’t mean his mum)

The waterfall in the quarry provided some much needed assistance in bike cleaning. The mud seemed to get into every nook and cranny and the bit of water was more than welcome for the riders between runs.

This event saw a stall selling some nice goods. Before we know it the organisers will be selling promotions space to retails (and all the clubs that are starting to show up)

Credit to the Bikeology crew who were out in force at the weekend. Not only does the kit look great but I know the riders really appreciated hearing them shout their name at the bottom of the course. And to top it off, Plush provided them with a crate of Redbull for the trip home!

TC’s Racing new kit was out in style at round four…. Watch this space for some more info on the team.

Who had red faces at the weekend picking up rubbish? William and Roisin… but it wasn’t their own rubbish. The red races were due to a recent ski trip (jealous) and the rubbish was other peoples rubbish. Thanks for that. It all helps…

Team Revolution/First Track Iron Horse etc etc looking very good on their new bikes.... Not forgetting Joe Ward's new Giant Glory as previewed on the site... Although they all looked the same covered in mud!

Thanks to Nigel for the pics. Full resuls in the results section. Pics soon to be in the Gallery (Thank Nigel)