The 2005 MTB Commission AGM took place in the Red Cow Inn Business Centre on Saturday 12th November. A remarkable turnout meant a very warm room and the Commission will hopefully be booking a larger venue for next year's meeting. There was a large turnout of downhillers from as South and Cork and as North as Belfast who represented themselves and their support exceptionally well....

Summary of Mountainbiking 2005

This year’s MTB AGM started with the minutes of last year’s AGM being read, this followed by a summary of what went on in the mtb scene in Ireland the previous year. Geoff Seymour summarised the cross country year while Brian Wolfe, DH team manager went on to summarise events of the 2005 year for downhill. He proceeded to thank all the organisers of races, saying that it had been one of the most successful domestic season for years, with particular thanks to the Winter League organisers, and organiser of the first three NPS rounds, Plush, Championship organisers 021 Racing and the IrishDH website for the support and coverage of the events for 2005.

It was then announced that for the 2006 season, downhillers will not require UCI points to race in World Cup events, however, criteria will be set by a downhill committee which is due to meeting in the next couple of week. Riders will have to meet this criteria in order to be entered into world cup events.

Coaching

The Commission then invited Robin Seymour to summarise events with regard to mountainbike coaching, who stated that he wished to develop structures in order for people to become coaches, but due to a change in management positions, it hadn’t been a very successful year and looked forward to next year. If any mountain bikers are interested in taking part in coaching courses should express your interest to Robin. A foundation level course would only take one day and if interest is high this is something that will be further developed in future.

 

Election of Officers to the Commission

The election of officers then took place: The 2004 Mountainbike Commission was:

XC Manager – Geoff Seymour

DH Manager – Brian Wolfe

Facilities Northern Ireland – Robert Lamont

Development – Billy Ferguson

PRO – Richie Byrne

Facilities/Leisure – Vacant

Rules/Regulations – Vacant

A suggestion was made from the floor that the above positions were not transparent and it was suggested that it be made clear why all positions were not up for re-election. It became clear that all existing members were voted in last year on a two-year term and would be up for re-election next year. Due to two people stepping down there were two vacant positions which would need filled.

There were three nominations for the two vacant positions and it was suggested that all three people be voted onto the mountain bike commission. The commission then looked as follows:

XC Manager – Geoff Seymour

DH Manager – Brian Wolfe

Facilities Northern Ireland – Robert Lamont

Development – Richie Byrne/Andy Potts

PRO – Justin May

Facilities/Leisure –Sean Herlihy

Rules/Regulations – Billy Ferguson

A suggestion was then made that each position had a job description written up in order to let licence holders know who was responsible for what issues and also for a report to be made after each commission meeting.

The Cycling Ireland President, Michael Concannon who was present at the meeting then congratulated Richie Byrne (RoI) and Andy Potts (NI) for taking up the role of development and congratulated mountain biking for their drive to recruit young people. He also commended mountain bikers for taking such an interested in the MTB Commission AGM and also stated that the commission positions be clarified in order to clear up any misunderstanding.

New one day licence system

The new one-day licence system was then discussed, with any misunderstandings cleared up as to how the system would work. Further information of this can be found on IrishdH here.

Access issues

Sean Herlihy then informed the licence holders of the access issues that are currently a big issue with Coillte at present. He stated that Coillte are bringing in bye-laws than will mean any mountain bikers found on Coiillet’s land are liable for 1250 – 12500 euro fine and/or up to 2 years imprisonment. It was clarified that Coillte are not bringing in these laws again mtbers but generally for motorbike riders such as scramblers, quads etc.

He informed the meeting that Coillte wished to regulate and control recreational activities in the forest and was willing to meeting a hand picked unit of mountain bikers from around the country in order to build purpose built trails that should be available by the end of 2006. Mountain bikers would build these trails with the help and Forest Managers. It was clarified that this did not include organised races as these races were already covered by insurance and that generally this was a good thing and it should be looked upon with optimism.

Any Other Business

This was an opportunity for any other issues to be raised that were not included on the agenda.

Generally, the bigger issue was that there was news that there would be no grants available from Sports Council for downhill mountain biking, (xc will still be able to avail of Sports Council grants) as it was not an Olympic sport and it was the Sports Council’s view that they would be starting to only award grants to Olympic sports.

With regard to downhill, a representative from 021 racing raised the issue of low standards of downhill racing in the country, for example with only one ambulance and the issue of communication during time. It was pointed out that it was up to organisers to provide timing equipment and ambulance cover, as the Mountain Biker Commission has not money to offer racers and therefore it was due to be part of the cost.

The issue of championship medals was brought up by Peter Popham as the vets and masters had yet to receive their medals. Peter was re-assured that the medals in question were ‘in the post’.

Peter Popham then informed members that he had brought up an issue with Geoff Seymour that he was informed could be discussed during the ‘Any Other Business’ section of the AGM. This issue was the fact that the downhill managers position was too big of a job for one person and that he proposed a second position be made for a second downhill manager. Brian Wolfe then spoke out and said that without help throughout the year from Peter Popham , and help at the worlds from Jim Smith he would have found it impossible to do it on his own. It was then suggested that Eamon Lawlor be voted onto the Commission as a second downhill representative. Following further discussions and some quiet objections Eamon was then voted as the second downhill representative on the committee.

Other issues were then brought up, such as the fact that all international mountainbiker riders licence were all previous recorded as road licences. It was discussed that riders should clearly mark on their licence application that they wish to apply for an off-road licence.

One issue that was raised was the fact that the clubs had not yet applied to run any downhill NPS events for 2006. It was assured by Michael Cowan that a meeting was due to take place within the next few weeks to discuss the dates and venues for the events and the National Championships were going to be organised by Plush and held in Rostrevor.

Following a few further small issues, a discussion then took place between Geoff Seymour and Richard McCauley regarding Jenny McCauley’s position on the cross-country team. Once issues were cleared up it was agreed that the meeting would come to a close so drivers that had come from very far could make their way home at a reasonable time.

This was one of the most successful MTB Commission meetings for many years, Downhillers showing a very successful season, great results from riders, new and old, solidarity with members and most importantly, everyone working for the focus of having another successful 2006 season!

Congratulations downhillers!