Irish CycloCross National Championship produces another DCC Champion

by Rich · January 13, 2015

On Sunday 11th January Team DCC made their way down to the Irish CycloCross National Championships at Swords. The National Championship brings the very best cyclocrossers from across Ireland to see who the best is.

Team DCC were the second largest representitives at the Nationals and this has nothing to do with how much Turkey had been consumed over Christmas but with 10 riders ready to take part and the Davidson Support Crew. Many Thanks to Denise for the top class photo’s of the event.

The day was cold but dry and the course looked tough to say the least. Even from the pictures it is hard to appreciate how steep the hill was and how muddy the conditions got. At the start of the week it had been recommended to put studs in the shoes due to how slippy it would get. This led to some looking pretty smug with their new rugby studs attached although for some who have shoes that dont take studs it could be a long climb.

Peter dancing all the way up the hill to take 6th Junior

The first championship races of the day are the Juniors, Ladies and Masters. In the juniors we had Peter Davidson who had managed to borrow a cross bike just for the day. Just to put this in context the Junior cyclocrossers are an elite group and have been mixing it all year with the main a contenders in the elite races. Peter produced an awesome performance to take 6th place in his second cx race – time to sell those mountain bikes???

Lisa digging in

In the Ladies race Lisa Millar put in a great ride to take 5th place which was even more impressive when this would be considered one of the most competitive Ladies race in years.

The Masters race saw Martin Grimley, Paul Mawhirt & Derek Graham enter the M40’s. The M50’s had Paul Watson in it with Mike Barton in the M60’s. The race started with an uphill sprint opening out into a wide field for about 500yards – sounds great except for the massive headwind that was waiting for you. With the narrowing of the course it was unfortunate that there was a touch of wheels and a pile up. Thankfully none of the DCC boys were involved and all involved in the incident were able to get up and continue. Paul Mawhirt and Derek Graham ran out of luck as the muck on the course caused both to have mechanicals taking them out. Martin finished a superb 22nd in the M40’s proving how much he loves a technical course and plenty of running. Paul Watson had a very determined race to work through the field and take 9th M50 for his troubles.

So are you saying it is broken?

In the M60 race Mike Barton produced the ride of the day coming home in first place and becoming another champion in the club. Awesome riding from a man of the hills who has only recently taken up cyclocross although the training for the three peaks race must have been the secret.

A nice easy course you say

The main race of the day is the Elite’s and with more than 50 riders on the start list this was setting up to be a very competitve race. With the races running behind schedule some of us assumed that the main race would be starting late which was a dangerous assumption. There is nothing worse than trying to workout where everyone is and realising they are all gridded and ready to start. A quick change and a missed gridding opportunity saw Barry start mid pack with Graham & myself tucked at the back. To makes matters worse there was a bad crash at the start blocking everyone and causing panic. With the race full on it was catch up time which seems like a great idea at the time but on the last 2 laps when the legs are done I guess there is no chance to change the strategy.

Great more running

With the amount of bad luck running about for Dromara CC today it would strike again with Graham puncturing and prematurely ending his race.

On the charge

Barry was still charging and possibily a bit too hard as he took a few tumbles before taking an excellent 9th place. For me this was quite a step up and delighted to have had a few battles while taking on this difficult course to finish 29th although it may take quite few days to recover.