MTB League Round 11 & Success at Round 4 of the Ulster XC Series

Tuesday 30th July saw round 11 (the penultimate round) of the Cuchulainn MTB league being contested, again on the open mountain.  The course this week, marginally shorter at 10km but with significantly more elevation, lung busting climbs and a finish at the rock at the top of Aidan's Canyon.  The mixed weather that we've been having recently didn't make too much difference to the state of the mountain, all still very ride-able, no water hazards to worry about.

As is always the case, the riders started off in their handicap groups starting at the “Downhill” along the fire road hitting the first of the climbs up the "Mother in Law" (a short punchy climb), descending on the fire road to the "Wooden Gate" and through to the Oaks and Farm house on the CLEC route to the "Grassy Bank" and up to "G String" and descent to "No Mans Land" to the "Stinger", over to the "Castles" down into "Aidan's Canyon" and the final ascent to the rock at the highest point.  A good test of stamina, lungs and legs, especially the final climb which ramped up very quickly.

With the riders completing most of the course, all that remained was the descent into "Aidan's Canyon" and the climb out and up to the rock at the top.  This is where places could be lost or won especially on the technical descent and climb out. The course clearly favoring Sandra O'Hagan's climbing prowess, finishing some 3 minutes ahead of 2nd placed rider Gary Sheils (who I may add was riding out of his socks) and rounding out 3rd was Michael Wilson some 2 minutes 40 seconds behind Gary.  The remainder of the riders finished in 3 groups with some very close finishes, possibly the closest racing to date.

With only 1 round remaining and very few points separating the top riders, it’s anyone’s to win, or to loose.

As always, thanks have to go to this week’s timekeepers, John Sharkey.

Results of Round 11

1st – Sandra O'Hagan
2nd – Gary Sheils
3rd – Michael Wilson

Fastest Rider

Gary Sheils – 39min 15 secs

Round 12 (the final round) will be on Tuesday 6th August @ 7pm, all visiting club riders and guests are welcome to compete as long as they hold a current (2013) Cycling Ireland Licence.

Meanwhile Saturday 3rd of August saw the start of the World Police and Fire Games in Rostrevor, Kilbroney MTB Trails. Supporting the main XC event was the Ulster XC Round 4, organised by Dromara Cycling Club.  3 Cuchulainns had entered S2 (Gary Sheils and Shane Garvey) and U16 (Conor Kavanagh) category, the course very similar to Round 2 had some brutal climbs to contend with, sections on the newly opened man made trails and use of the old natural trails, a good mix of everything, but hard laps.  First to race was Conor in the U16, playing cat and mouse over the 3 laps with Cameron McIntyre from XMTB and in the end was beaten into 2nd place place by a mere 20 seconds.  Gary and Shane both in the S2 category started off well but Shane had a mechanical in lap 1 and lost around 15 minutes and sadly on his 4th lap he had yet another mechanical which resulted in his race being over.  Meanwhile Gary was battling it out with Christopher McGlinchey from Chain Reaction cycles, both lapping within seconds of each other, a battle royal.  Cruelly, Gary was beaten into 3rd place by the smallest of margins, 1 second, the blink of an eye.  Great racing and great results by the Cuchulainns in Rostrevor.