Garvagh MTB race - Round 5 NPS

[manuel6b]

164 in so far for this Sunday's MTB race up at Garvagh forest. This is Round 5 of the NPS series, Round 4 of the Ulster XC series. Pre-registration closes tonight at 8pm. Please use this facility to help speed up the admin on the day. Riders will be gridded using the pre-registation lists. See www.ulsterxc.com for details.

Senior 1 men 9
Senior 2 men 15
Senior 3 men 33
Senior 4 men 30
Junior men 5
Senior 1 women 1
Senior 2 women 0
Senior 3 women 1
Under 16 14
Under 14 11
Under 12 15
Under 10 15
Under 8 7
Under 6 8
TOTAL 164

[manuel6b]

Registered so far from Dromara CC
Peter R, Richard C, John McG, Robert D, Barry K, Paul W and Adrian B.

[barryvankellett]

Another great NPS and UXC round yesterday at Garvagh. Very enjoyable course and conditions were desert like with dust kicking up everywhere instead of gloopy mud.
The S1 race went off incredibly hard. No Seymour or Aiken on the line so I think a few likely lads were keen to get away. I was hanging on the back of the lead out train by the skin of my teeth for the first few minutes. A mistake by one of the guys ahead on the first singletrack section had the rest of us off and running with Adair, McKee and Prendiville disappearing off already with a 20second lead. Never to be seen again.

I ended up racing with Max Power, Graham Boyd and James Curry for a few laps. Chasing down Tomasz Michalski just out ahead. I made a mistake on a rock garden and had to jump off on lap 3 and Graham got a gap on me and drove on up the course to clubmate Tomasz. The pair then proceeded to tag team me and put more time into me on lap 4 when I could feel the fade kicking in. I got it together on the last lap and pushed on hard finally bridging back to Tomasz 2 hours after he had slipped off initially. Graham was pushing on just ahead of him by another 20 seconds. The big Pole managed to hold me off and hit the final fireroad a few seconds before me, making all the difference. I gave the final sprint so much I completely misjudged the final bend and was drifting precariously close to the barriers - but unlike recent form - i managed to stay upright

6th Place finish.
Happier with the performance than the placing.



In the other races, John Shanks enjoyed his moneys worth of laps in Senior 2.
Brian Wilson and Adrian Booth were both pipped by Brother Brian of Lakeland Cycles in the Senior 3 race... Sharpen up lads!
Paul Watson showed them how it was done and held him off to the line. Robert Davison was unfortunate to puncture on lap 1.
Peter Ritchie and Gibson Chambers slugged it out in S4 with Peter coming in a few seconds ahead. Richard Cowan woke up on Sunday and decided to go Mountain biking. It took him so long to find the bike at the back of the garage he hadn't time to do much practise but had an enjoyable day regardless, I think?

Thank goodness for the Wilson Kids though. Flying the flag for the club on the podium. Kelly taking 3rd in U14 Girls and Ben 2nd in U12 Boys - a very tight race.

Full Results here:
www.j15ulsterxc.dromaracc.co.uk/Results/UlsterXC_Round_4_2014_Garvagh.htm