Dromara Trail Quest League Round 4 [Brennan's Garage]
Dromara Cycling Club held their Christmas Trail Quest on Sunday 27 December 2009 from the event headquarters at Brennan's Garage on the main Ballynahinch to Newcastle road. This annual event is one of the most popular of Dromara's series of leisure mountain bike events but the recent cold snap had left many of the secondary roads very slippery and this was a factor in the lower than usual turn out. The tricky conditions did not put off the hardcore trail questers with approximately 30 teams of eager cyclists showing up early on the Sunday morning slipping and sliding across the forecourt to sign on. To further highlight the slippery conditions those standing in the forecourt witnessed several other cyclists on road bikes taking a tumble when they entered the forecourt from the rear entrance.
Suitably warned the first teams took off just after 10:30 with most taking part in the 3.5 hour event with two teams of juniors completing the 2 hour event. As before the teams were issued with a map showing the location of 32 markers spread out from Drumaness to Dundrum with point values from 10 to 40. Teams had to decide on the fastest route to locate the most markers in the given time. The added complexity was deciding which lanes to avoid because of ice with many finding out the hard way. Within minutes of the start we had the first injury with Alan Reid from the club retiring with an injured ankle. Thankfully this was the only major injury of the day but there had been numerous topples among all the teams and as expected this year's event was not as high scoring as in previous years. [UPDATE: It was later learned that Alan had broken his ankle. We all wish him a full and speedy recovery]
The 32 markers represented a total of 530 points and it was the experienced team Noctural who won achieving 305 of those points. There was a tie for second place between teams CCAR and The Losers with both achieving 296 points. Team Purple, made up of members of Newry Wheelers, was fourth with solo rider Paul McArthur finishing fifth. Teams start to lose points if they do not return within the time allowed and today's event saw 10 teams lose points for being late with team Wacky Racers unfortunately arriving back over 20 minutes late and losing all the points they had worked so hard to achieve.
These leisure events attract a wide range of cyclists from first timers to seasoned veterans as well as adventure racers like Ivan Park, who has recently returned from competing in Adu Dhabi, and top flight racers like Roger Aiken who recently retained the title of Ulster Cyclo Cross Champion. The six events have been organised to raise money for the Northern Ireland Cancer Fund for Children which has been the chosen charity for Dromara Cycling Club for many years.
A big thank you to Ross Galway for setting up this round of the trail quest series. Many thanks also to Connor McKibben and the hardworking staff at Brennan's Garage for providing the much appreciated hot soup and roll.
The next round of the trail quest series will take place on Sunday 10 January 2010 at Paddy's Barn, Saul, Downpatrick. For more details see the club's website www.dromaracc.co.uk.
Photos and report by Martin Grimley
