ZealOptics NPS Round 1 - Moneyscalp

May 05

The first round of the 2005 Zeal Optics Irish Downhill National Points series featured a welcome return to Moneyscalp Wood, the home of Dowhill Racing in the north of Ireland . A large entry of 107 riders tackled the fun, technical course with tight racing in all categories.

The Track

The forestry operations that caused Moneyscalp wood to be 'out of bounds' for the winter league seemingly haven't started as the forest was still standing! A bit of misleading taping by the PLUSH crew meant that the riders practicing for the past couple of weeks where in fact riding the wrong course. This cunning plan kept the track that was eventually used, in great condition and gave us a full day of dry racing with not a spike tyre in sight. Starting on the fire road the riders hit the 'no brakes' bus stop and got spat out onto the fire road for the lung busting sprint before diving into the forest. A flat pedaly section with some tricky turns led riders into a small jump onto a rock face followed by a narrow a fast single track straight with many riders hitting this with no brakes. A few more tight turns with a few alternate lines causing some debate on which was fastest, led into the 'rooty section' where the fastest line hopped the roots on the right and then carved across the track and doubled the roots on the left avoiding the off camber section. Next were some S bends with another line choice, cut the corner and T-bone the end of the berm or use the berm and get more speed for the next straight. From then on it was the 'carpet jump' into a deep berm before heading towards the super fast run in for the ski jump. Landing that, it was into the last corner of the track, not as bermed as it used to be and only the best riders carrying good speed onto the final pedal, and tricky doubles before the finish. General opinion was that the track was the best on offer in Moneyscalp, it was riding well with plenty of flow and was both fun and changeling for all riders.

The Racing

U14

A great turnout in the U14 and some new faces to the Irish NPS with some great racing. The top two riders, Darryl Wade (1st) and Robert Duggan (2nd) broke the two minute mark with 3rd place Niall Keogh rounding off the podium not too far behind. The U14 riders tackled the course with full commitment with many riders hitting the ski jump at speed and showing the older riders how its done!

U16

A big turnout in the U16 riders made for some close racing with the Seanan O'Riordan taking the win by less than three tenths of a second over Cathal Hickey and Jason Murphy less than a second behind. Colin Franklin in 4th missed out on a podium by less than half a second.

Masters

Marty McGuigan continued his winter league form with a win in the always competitive Masters category, in an impressive time of 1.27.030 which would have placed him the top 10 in Elite. Joe Ward was reading the script in his traditional 2nd place behind Marty with Mark Dickson close behind in third. A special mention goes to Steve from Real Cycles, sponsor of the previous days 4X. Steve, by his own admission is not a downhiller but showed his support of the event by giving it a go and putting in a respectable time, despite his mobile phone ringing on the start line as he was about to go!

Vets

Reigning NPS champ, Tom Clogher looked like Mikeal Pascal on is new MSC rig with limited edition white Marzocchi 888s, while riding his way to the top of the podium. Derek Cowan wasn't far behind in second with Vincent Bradley and Pat McGinn rounding off the category.

Ladies

Michele McCartney was again the only competitor, but was well pleased at putting in a time that beat all the vets. Sarah Davies was seen riding the course on Saturday but failed to confirm the rumours that she would be racing this year....?

Seniors

A massive senior category was led by old skool Downhiller Mark Smyth on his new Kona. Showing he still has it Mark put in a handy time of 1.28.520, nearly 2 seconds ahead of second place Ricky Lawrence. Ricky broke his chain on his second run so we'll never know if he'd have caught Mark. Alastair Maxwell put in a great time to get himself on the podium. Condolences go out to Mukus (Michael Anstey) who did some serious looking shoulder damage in practice and had to be driven off to the X-Ray department.

Junior

Dan Wolfe put in the 5th fastest time of the day to take the win over Gregg O'Keefe setting the scene for a close battle between these two in the season ahead. Stevie McClintock crashed his way to a respectable third place showing again that he will be a force to be reckoned with if he can keep it between the tape!

Elite

After the first run, the top three riders, Glyn O'Brien, Ben Reid and Andy Yoong were all on the same second with come back kid Colin Ross in fourth a few seconds back. Colin was heard saying he was planning on pedaling a bit harder on the second run and did so with great effect taking the first Elite win of the season. Andy ended up in second and Ben in 3rd with Glyn pushed of his usual place on the podium by the marginally faster SPD wearing Riders.

With a great entry of 107 riders this was a great start to the summer season and as usual the organisation was perfect with 'almost live' timing, great commentary from Nicola and some cool tunes on the PA. There was even a hot seat! A big thank you to Zeal Optics and PLUSH for providing prizes on the day.

The PLUSH crew have again raised the bar for race organisers in Ireland . See you all next week at round 2.

For a full list of results click HERE

See a full gallery of photos courtesy of Reac Photography HERE