Craigavon Delivers (Babies?)

Dromara CC hosted the latest round of the Ulster CX series on Sunday past, at the Craigavon Water sports centre. A fantastic, twisting, snaking course compacted into one relatively small area provided for some hard racing. The torrential rain in the days leading up to the event brought the inevitable mud. But what Kind of mud would it be? Somewhere between a Grade 4 (Peanut butter) and Grade 5 (Goo) covered the majority of the course, with a couple of sections producing a small mix of grades 6 & 7 (Slime – Glop)*

The kids races had their own special course set up just for them, to keep them from getting run over by out of control Middle aged men desperately practising and trying to get a hold of the slippery conditions before their own race.

DCC storming round the kids course.

First off was Lexie Broome with an excellent 6^th Place in the U8 Girls, whizzing round the kids course, slipping and sliding away. Alex Harrower came in 13^th Place in the U10 Boys race with big brother Fraser getting 10^th in the U14 Boys race. Also in the U14 boys race was Ben Wilson who was fighting it out with Island wheelers Darren Rafferty, as in previous weeks. Toe to Toe until a disastrous puncture less than a minute from the end meant Ben had to run the final yards and lost the lead, but still took 2^nd.

Still smiling!

In the Under 16 boys race, Max Melville came in with 8^th place, and Aaron Watson had an excellent 4^th place finish in his first off road race, riding the last two laps on a flat wheel, a fantastic achievement.

Flat Tyres? Only a minor issue.

Our sole representative in the MTB support race was Derek Miniss, who just missed out on a top 10 spot by a matter of seconds, taking 11^th place.

Derek showed the young’uns how to speedway corner all day long

75 riders in total took to the line for the B race. The Dromara B race squad were in full attendance, with the latest new member, Marty McAnulty getting stuck in again. Brian Wilson was our top B racer with 11^th spot, just ahead of Graham Beckett in 13^th. Mike Barton was 27^th , with Robert Davison not far behind in 30^th and Gibson Chambers next home in 39th spot. Stephen Nugent finished in 47^th place just one place ahead of Marty, who managed to complete the race on a set of almost slick tyres with about 50psi in them. Rumour has it that the piggy bank has been smashed and new rubber is already on its way. John Shanks and Paul Watson unfortunately both suffered early exits, also at the hands of the puncture fairy.

In the Elite Ladies CX Race, Dianne Wilson suffered the same fate as Ben, John and Paul, with a puncture in the same spot. Unfortunately on her first lap, though with recent running results she may have been better just throwing the bike away and continuing on foot.

Last race of the day away was the Elite mens race. Top of the pile was myself with 2^nd place, mainly thanks to a brilliant effort from a great pit crew. I managed to stay with Roger Aiken for the first lap and got a good gap on the rest of the field before the Ex-national champion proved to be just too strong and forged on alone leaving me to just maintain my own pace and lead over the remaining riders. Several clean bike changes ensured the legs stayed fresher for longer and made things a lot easier.

Graham Smyth was next in with 17^th place, and a last lap attack on club mate Zak Hanna as the two of them slugged it out with each other and Joe McCrory and Johnny Taylor of Carn Wheelers. Zak had an unfortunate puncture on lap 4, but at least he had a nice fancy light clean bike, with super grippy tyres in the pits to let him get stuck back in for the rest of the race and secure a top 20 finish. Nathan Mullan also returned to action this weekend. Conditions maybe not suiting our tarmac expert, but he is sure to get the hang of the muck yet. 32^nd place for Nathan.

Last but not least, Richard Cowan smashed his rear mech and hanger into his wheel, towards the final 3^rd of the race. With Alison and Richard expecting a new arrival any day soon, he was clearly looking for a quick getaway in case any phone calls came his way from the Maternity ward. Luckily there were no missed calls, so we kept him on afterwards to mop out the showers and changing rooms. It wasn’t until he arrived home and just in the door that things started to happen and before he could even upload to strava or order a new derailleur he was a Daddy again.

Welcome to our newest club member, Tom George Cowan.

Congratulations from everyone at the club!

Lastly – a quick personal word of thanks to all the helpers who made yesterday’s race happen, a superb team effort yet again. Marshall’s, time keepers, sign on crew, course set up and take down people. Several people gave up their whole day to cover all the shifts, an incredible effort. As always, special thanks to Martin and Lisa for also giving up their races to allow the likes of me to avoid doing so. Wonderful club with wonderful members!

Full results of yesterday’s race are here.

Next week is round 7 at Ormeau Park, hosted by XMTB. Sure to be a great race as always.
As always, see http://www.ulstercyclocross.com/ for all race details on registering, dates etc.

*The Mud Index scale can be found here.