Punctures, crashes and mud equals start of the Cyclo-cross season

The first race of the Cyclo-cross season kicked off at Orangefield park with the Brian Kinning GP attracting more than 300 riders to show off their skills in the mud. Glenn Kinning and his team had spent many hours designing and creating an excellent course for all levels. The first bit of good news was that the predicted downpour never materialized but the ground was still as challenging.

The first race up is always the Under 6’s and Fiadh Kellett flew the flag for Dromara CC even after a training tumble earlier in the week. Fiadh upgraded to the big wheels (20”) this week and looks ready to beat al the boys this season.  In the Under 10’s Eva Cowan and Aoife Kellett would take to the start line for Dromara an Aoife took off at the start leading from start to finish to take her first win of the season and hopefully more to come this season.  Eva fresh from her park run in the morning jumped on the bike to race around the U10’s course and was delighted to take 6^th place in her first race this season.

In the Under 12’s James Armstrong has been racing all summer and looked happy to back on the grass mixing it up. It was a fiercely fought race in the Under 12’s with the lead changing every lap. In the last lap Josh Gallagher from Orchard CC and James pulled away from the rest and it would take a straight out sprint to split them with Josh narrowly pipping James to the line. With James leaving everything on the course today he should be delighted with his hard fought second place. One to watch for the season ahead.

In the ladies race Andra Hamilton and Martina Hawkins would take to the start line and produce excellent performances in a very competitive field of almost 20 women. Martina would work her way through the field to make the top 10 with Andra not far behind in 13^th. I am sure there will be more to come from these two as the season progresses.

The penultimate race of the day was the B race which had 100 riders battling around a tight course. We had six men chasing the glory of a first race win although speaking to them before the start no one has been on a bike since the last time and those that had were complaining of old war wounds. Amazingly these all seem to clear up once the start gun was fired. Darren McCann would take the honor of being the first Dromara rider home in 13^th place with the dark horse Paul Hamilton working his way through the riders having started way at the back to claim 20^th. Brian Kellett will be hoping for better luck this season but a puncture would see him drop out of the top 20 and battle back to claim 29^th just ahead of Derek Graham in 31^st. Mike Barton (43^rd) and John McGuigan (70^th) would complete the dromara riders completing a great first race.

The main race had the ever youthful Barry Kellett who was racing in his first M40 cyclocross race. After testing how well on of the posts had been hammered into the ground in practice the bad luck would follow him into the race rolling a tub leaving him battling back to claim 15^th place. Neil Armstrong had missed the memo regarding getting entered to the B race and dismissed this as Barry would need someone to lead him out. As Neil said it was good to be back at it as he claimed 50^th place in one of the most talented fields we have seen.

This wasn’t the only race that was on this weekend and the Dromara CC Enduro Crew were taking part in Round 4 of the Vitus First Tracks Enduro Cup at Castlewellan. Cameron McClusker would show what Dromara CC riders are all about leaving every last bit of sweat on the course and claiming 23^rd in the 14-16year old category. Ben Wilson had a very successful day in the U21 cat taking 3^rd and just outside the top ten overall. Finally Peter Davison had a storming event taking 3^rd in the Senior Men cat and 7^th Overall in a very closely fought endure.

Great riding from all the Dromara riders from a very busy weekend. Next weekend is the Slieve Croob Hill Climb event which caters for all abilities with this year an off-road hill climb added to test your skills. Get signed up to hat is always a fantastic event with t-shirts and prizes galore.