MTB Club League update
This weeks Mountain Bike action saw two races in the club league. We had a Cross Country (XC) race on Tuesday with 17 riders, and an Enduro round on Sunday with 13 riders. Numbers for the MTB series have been very good this season with the Off Road section of the club going from strength to strength.
The cross country round is a handicap based race with individual riders completing a number of laps and different start times based on ability. The course selected by organiser Graham Smyth was extremely tough, it seemed to involve a lot of climbing even
though there where a couple of lovely natural descents that were over too quickly. After 40-50 mins of racing it was Richard Cowan who took the top spot with James Armstrong 2nd and Bryce Hethrington 3rd. Cowan has made a miraculous improvement on the
mountain bike in a few short weeks. However unlike the road league this early season bluff will not dictate a handicap for the season.
The Enduro round on Sunday was run over 6 stages of varying length and difficulty. David Broome had spent weeks selecting and preparing the course. This race was run without any handicap system. After the 6 stages the winner was Ben Wilson with a time of 14.16. Peter Davison came in 2nd on 14.54 and 3rd was guest rider Drew Armstrong on 15.03.
Fourth rider home (3rd Dromara CC) was Richie Carey well clear of fifth place Paul McLean who claimed he wasn’t familiar with the stages. Barry Kellett won the hardtail category with an impressive show of how to make your strengths work for you. Wannita Broome won the ladies as well as organising rider start times. Cameron McCusker won the U16.
The next round is Race 7 out of 12 which is an XC race organised by Bryce Hethrington. Details on club Facebook page.
Report by Brian Wilson
