McAuley & McMurray crush the opposition at Slieve Croob Hill Climb

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Slieve Croob stands tall surveying the Mourne Mountains and always keeping an eye over Dromara. This year however a crazy idea was put forward to have a hill climb to the summit of Slieve Croob. Everyone was in agreement that the surface wasn’t safe, the sheep could cause havoc, no one in their right mind would come and who would sponsor it. Several phone calls later and finally a watch of a Kevin Costner film and the mantra of “Build it and they will come” seemed very appropriate.

When organising an event like this there are many many people that dont get mentioned in this report but without them there would be no race. So many thanks to all the people that contributed to the event no matter how small they thought their contribution was.

The first delivery arrived on Saturday morning as the clouds dissipated and the sun shone to reveal the true challenge of Slieve Croob. The wind was barely noticeable compared to Friday and the Sign on and car park were ready to welcome the riders. The James King Pub in Finnis opened its doors to us and Peter Morgans Cottage was the perfect place for the Sign on.

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After the riders signed on there was the opportunity to test some Abernethy Butter Fudge to get the system firing. Up until Friday night the smart money had been on Lindsay Watson ta take the win with ease until a late flood of entries saw the likes of Roger Aiken and Cathal McAuley putting their names down. The good news was that apparently everyone is on the off season and no one had been on their bike all week, in fact some stated that they may be enjoying the off season too much as they went back for seconds on the fudge.

It wasn’t all about the men as the women’s field was even harder to predict who would get the top spot with all of them claiming they aren’t great at climbing. Shalene Ward would be a dark horse with Martina Hawkins another decent bet based on her secret CX training.

For the rest of us who looked at the strava KOM and came to conclusion that today was not going to be the day we were going to smash it the challenge was purely bragging rights and of course the achievement.

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The smart money at the start of the week seemed to be on Lindsay Watson but a late flurry of entries saw the quality of the field improve dramatically with the likes current irish national cyclocross champion Roger Aiken, Craig McAuley fresh from his second place at the Foyle GP and Cathal Smyth who is having a great season. In the debate about which lady would be the fastest it was anyones guess as Shalene Mcmurray has a great running pedigree but would it transfer to the bike, Martina Hawkins must be with a shout considering her secret CX training.

Who was going to be the fastest Dromara CC rider to the top to claim bragging rights was surely going to go between Nathan Mullan, Barry Kellett and Matty Armstrong with an outside chance that Jack Ferguson might be in the mix. For the first Dromara CC lady it would be interesting to see if Roisin Wilson could take that accolade.

With the marshals in place it was time to send the riders into their own personal hell to see what they could produce. When the dust had settled and people were still talking about who was sprinting through the car park to get to the summit. Craig McAuley produced an astounding time of 15mins 2 seconds to become the fastest rider. To put the time in some perspective his nearest rival Lindsay Watson finished second in 16mins dead and as it would turn out 3rd place to 5th place would be separated by 3 seconds with the Phoenix man Cathal Smyth proving every second counts to take 3rd place from Cameron McIntyre (4th) and Roger Aiken(5th).

Shalene McMurray proved that her mountain running fitness would pay dividends as she was the fastest lady in 20min 18seconds with Sonia McIntyre proving she can climb in second place followed by Dromara CC’s fastest lady Roisin Wilson.

In the bragging rights at Dromara CC it would be Matthew Armstrong who produced an excellent performance to beat Nathan and Barry and claim the fastest hill climber from Dromara CC. Barry Kellett would miss out on second fastest Dromara CC rider by only 1 second as Nathan squeezed in just ahead of him.

For the rest we had less than half the field breaking 20mins and there were plenty of riders proving that making it to the top was a tremendous achievement. Ben Wilson was our youngest competitor today and full respect to him for completing this epic hill climb.

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When the riders had completed the hill climb it was time to head back to the King James Pub where our soon to be Michelin starred chef Neil Armstrong was in full Chef mode Barbequing the burgers provided by Carnbrooke Meats. With everyone cleared from the course the Prize giving could start with the spot prizes generously provided from Mourne Cycles, Hanna Cycles, Dave Kane Cycles, Bike Spanner, Holly Coffee, Life Outdoor and Cafe Velo Magasin. Many thanks to Karen Flowers for providing the winning boutique’s.

With 51 brave riders tackling this epic hill climb we look forward to welcoming back those same 51 cyclists next year and those that feel they are up to the Slieve Croob Hill Climb Challenge.

The photos can be found here:

Facebook – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Flickr – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Full Results are below:

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