The third round of the winter league took place on Sunday 4th february 2007 with almost 140 riders turning out for the new course at Moneyscalp to see who was the fastest down the hill. With thick fog in the morning - many riders (and spectators) weren't sure what sort of a day was due, however, the sun shone over the Mournes to give a great days craic and a great days racing.
Here’s how the riders fared:
U14
Rostrevor's Michael McCann took first place following two second placed position for the two previous rounds. An impressive 9 seconds seperated 1st and 2nd place. Kyle Rimmer followed in second place with a time of 1.48.550 with Niall O'Down taking third place with a time of 1.51.707. Jake Crean managed third place two seconds behind Niall with a time of 1.53.285 with Richard Burney taking fifth with a time of 1.57.369
U16
A repeat of the first week in Moneyscalp - Banbridge’s Davy Graham took first place by 2 seconds with a time of 1.30.322 followed by Paul McGrady who took second with a time of 1..32.878. Again Epic's Greg Callaghan completed the top three with a time of 1.37.009 following a bad crash in his first run. Matthew McDowell managed fourth place, close behind Greg with a time of 1.38.495 with Gavin Kelly a second behind to take fifth with a time of 1.39.098.
Ladies
Only One lady - CRC’s Abagail Hogg with a first run time of 2.15.201, which improved by almost eleven seconds on her second run with a time of 2.04.102. Congratulations Abagail
Vets
An impressive 9 vets turned out to race at Moneyscalp. Team Real Cycles/Commencal’s Stevie Davidson was winning by half a second after the first run with a time of 1.34.235. however Club CRC's Stevie Bell stepped by a gear in his second run to take the win by 2 seconds with a time of 1.32.473. Bananaman Carl Young took third place with a time of 1.42.599 with newcomers Chris Hagan and Steven Graham taking fourth place and fifth place respectively with times of 1.44.872, and 1.45.194.
Sport
Epic's Brian Cooney took first place with a time of 1.31.461 with close competition from Enda Munnelly who registered a time of 1.33.507 in his second run. Derek O'Donoghue managed to take third place with a second run time of 1.34.565 while MTB Rider's Malcolm Bloomer improved his second run time to put him half a second ahead of Robert Seth with a time of 1.39.264 with Robert only finishing his second run to register a time of 1.39.554.
Senior
Club MTBRider’s James Burns took the win for the second time in the winter league with a time of 1.28.320 ahead of Ben Mullen who after not finishing his first run, registered a second run time of 1.29.507. CRC's Luke Ireland put a second run time of 1.30.984 to take third place, while Epic's Sean Herilhy and Conor Doris shred the 1.31 second to take fourth and fifth respectively.
Master
Michael Cowan took the win in the third round with a time of 1.26.486, almost 2 seconds ahead of European Champion Joe Ward's 1.28.221. Steven Franzoni was a few hundreds of a second behind Joe with a second run time of 1.28.479 while Ian McIntyre registered a first run time of 1.33.289 to take fourth place. Unfortunately Ian didn't get a second run time as the timing equipment was taken out by Descent-World's Jonny Beckett! Bikeology Boss Stephen Paskin took fifth place with a time of 1.42.314.
Junior
Following the fastest time of the first run with a time of 1.18.677 - Club CRC’s Ewan Doherty managed to hold on to first place with a faster time of 1.18.394 in a very competitive junior category. Team Real Cycles/Commencal's Karl O’Sullivan took second place with a time of 1.22.520 with Epic's Colin Franklin taking third place with a second run time of 1.23.319. Killarney's Jason Murphy took fourth place with a time of 1.25.005 while Andrew Godtfrey and Matthew Coulter took fifth and sixth respectively with times within the 1.27 mark.
Elite
Ben reid took the fastest time of the day with a second run time of 1.16.926, two seconds ahead of the second fastest time of the day held by Ewan Doherty. Epic's Gerard Wolfe finished in second place with a second run time of 1.18.599 with Team Real Cycles/Commencal's Stephen Beattie two hundreds of a second behind also with a second run time of 1.18.775. Banbridge's Gareth McKee finished in fourth with a second run time of 1.20.506 while Jamie McCullough and CRC's Dale McMullan shared the 1.21 second to take fifth and sixth place.
U16 development fund
As part of the U16 development squad, Chain Reaction Cycles Club and Epic Club have teamed up and will be donating 10euro for every U16 rider towards the development squad. This will enable training days as well as trips to British NPS races. IrishDH would like to thank CRC and Epic for this gesture.
The craic
With the weather as good as it was - the atmosphere was great and everyone seemed to have a great day!
XFactor's Nicola Ward took the singing prize of the day with a rendition of 'Happy Birthday' directed towards Master rider Barry Dunn. Happy birthday Barry!
A big welcome to Descent-World's Jonny Becket, despite his best attempts to win masters by taking out the timing equipment for the other riders, he still didn't manage to beat Joe. Good to see you Jonny.
The Bikeology guys were out in force with their new gear - and maybe now new faces - but new names to the faces as we saw the introduction of 'sponge' as well as some twirls and dances to show off the new gear! Good to see you all out!
A controversial incident during the day involved the Police arriving and placing parking tickets on some of the cars parked around the junction with the main road. Organisers did inform drivers that we had received complaints from locals about the parking the previous week, however, the parking tickets were unforseen and organisers would like to ask riders to bear this in mind in the future.
Following complaints from the forestry about the rubbish in Moneyscalp, a big thanks to everyone for using th black bags provided. However, there were still riders who saw fit to throw their rubbish at the side of the road beside their cars and for this - you should be disgusted with yourself. Your name has been noted and organisers will be in touch with you at the next race! Riders should be aware that if they drop rubbish - someone will have to come along and pick it up after them. It's not a pleasant job so please bring your rubbish back to your car or place it in the bins provided.
The next race is in Cloon Wood, Enniskerry Co Wicklow on Sunday 18 th February 2007 . Watch this space for further information but in the meantime please offer your assistance – however big or small this makes a remarkable difference to the time keepers, which is a difficult enough job without the added pressure of 30 seconds and such large number of riders.
