Irvine conquers Divis Mountain at the Bobby Crilly Race

Finally the sun made an appearance for the classic Bobby Crilly and the mountain men from Dromara CC couldn’t resist a challenge like that. The A4 race saw five hopeful DCC men(Graham Beckett, Stephen Irvine, Graham Smyth, Barry Kane & Robert McDonald) get to the start line. The A3 race had Richard Cowan, Zak Hanna and David Dickson with Ronnie Smyth competing in the A1/A2 race.

With the A4 riders eager to get to Divis as quickly they had to be pulled over as they were catching the A3 riders. With a quick rest they were back on the road again and the peleton hit the climb to Divis.  By the top of the climb Stephen Irvine produced an awesome ride to take second place.

Not to be forgotten Graham Beckett has been hiding under the radar as he gets quicker and quicker and today was no different with a brilliant 9th place finish. As we can see below Graham Smyth loved all the suffering – just look at that disappointed look because the climbing had finished for the day.

In the A3 race having been told to go faster the last lap was some what brisk I believe the term is. With it being my first Crilly race the advice I got told is everyone takes it easy until Dundrod then the speed builds. Clearly that got thrown out the window as we all hurtled to Dundrod and hit the climb like a freight train. Alas David Dickson’s bike was so scared of the climb it gave a mechanical at the bottom. Zak and myself managed to conquer the climb and finish in the top quarter of riders. As you can see below Zak just loves the climb.

So from all at Dromara CC I’d like to pass on our thanks to Phoenix CC for a superbly organised race and an excellent feed at the end. I would recommend this blue ribbon event for your race calendar next year. I know I’ll be back for another dose of suffering. Congratulations and kudos to all the winners of the Bobby Crilly 2015.