Munster Round 1, Cheekpoint Waterford

Rider: Stevie McClintock Photo: Nigel Elder

March 05

A final tally of 59 riders gave the first round of the Munster Series in Cheekpoint a lively buzz. With the glorious sunshine, riders would be forgiven for thinking they were racing during the middle of the summer.

Race organiser Tom Power along with the help of the locals resurrected an old school track and spiced it up with some more new school style flat out sections and drops. From the start it was the usual fireroad sprint but all be it with a new pallet ski jump, a flat out bus-stop which nearly all were hipping clean and without even dabbing a brake. Next up was the left right hand corners into the bushes, either take the corner or hit the lip on the left and jump the box, saving precious seconds on the corner, as long as you nailed the jump right. From here it was a lot of pumping through the open woops and then pick a line through the maze in the tree line. Quick pedal, hop and a pump and before you know it you were hitting the new stepdown before the fireroad, gone is the rock drop of old and in is a new kicker spitting riders into a big catcher berm on the fireroad. Up next were three of the sweetest bus-stops going, flat out whooped and different lines galore. Cross the final fireroad and onto the wooden north shore style road jump, probably one of the biggest jumps most riders have seen on an irish course had many riders hitting it trying to get it dialled in so they could make the flat loose corner at the end. Over the length of the weekend the trail dried out well and the talk of the race was how to rail the corner after the drop.

The Racing

Novice / Hardtail

A category that should be at all races, a great chance for all the new riders and hardtail mad men to fight it out in their first few tastes of racing. With a good time of 2.11 Conor Callaghan took the win with James Hayes and Johnny O'Riordan not too far behind.

U14

Racing was extremely tight with 8 seconds between the first three places. David MacManus crossed the line fastest to take first followed closely by Dave Lewis and Robert Duggan in third.

U16

Damien Maher rode the hell out of his battered bike to take the win in Under 16s. Cathal Hickey got second place, exactly a second behind Damien with Jason Murphy following up with a 2.03 to take third.

Vets

With only one vet rider in attendance David MacManus put in a very respectable time of 2.03 and walked away a happy daddy with senior and junior taking a win on the day in their categories.

Masters

Ian MacIntyre put in the effort of travelling the six and a half hours from Ballymena and won by just under 1 second with a time of 1.59.601. Mick Finn and Sean Murphy rounded off the top three.

Seniors

Keith Brock finally nailed the drop corner late on Sunday and walked away with the win with a time of 1.50 with Damien Daly in second on his new white Moorewood and Bobby St Ledger in third place with a total of 12 seconds separating the top three.

Juniors

A very hotly contested and exciting category as always saw the young Wolfe, Dan take the win with a blisteringly fast time of 1.41.949, in second behind the always happy and smiling Mark Nugent. Greg O'Keefe sat out his second run as he wasn't well although he was fast enough in his first to pilot his Horse to third. A note must be made though for the speed of Stevie McClintock who had a not so good first run and crashed into the very last tree on the course on his second, he was on for a very fast time and I was surprised he walked away from that crash in one piece, one of the worst I've seen in a while.

Elite

With only four riders racing in the elite category the winner was Ger Wolfe as he stormed the track like he was on rails the whole way down with a super time of 1.41.742, only two hundredths of a second faster than his younger brother. Race organiser Tom Power finished in second despite the hectic morning associated with running a race. In third was Rory O Keefe at his first race on his new black Iron Horse bike.

For a full list of results click HERE