CX Round 7 - Ormeau Park, Belfast

Carn Wheelers day began in the under 8 race with Riley Gibson putting in another fine performance.  In the under 10 female race Eimer Skelly improved on her result in Larne with a podium place.  Over a challenging 5 lap race the young lady put in a massive effort to come home in 2^nd.  Her older brother Ryan was again out in the under 12 male race.  The Under 12s had a longer course to complete over 4 laps.  Over the 6 rounds these young gents have offered up some fantastic racing and today was another serving of some fine racing.  Ryan again came home with a top 10 finish in a hotly contested race. 

Sarah Elder continued on her dominant run in the league with another 1^st place finish in the under 14 female race.  That brings her number of 1^stplace finishes in this years league to 4 and a massive points tally of 247.  Her sibling Emma made it another winning run for the Elders, in the under 16 female race another flying five lap effort saw off the competition with almost a minute to spare.  Niamh Skelly was also in action making it two green and black jerseys on the winner podium.  Completing the race in just over a minute to take third.  Niall Skelly in the under 14 male race kept the pressure on the leaders with a another top 10 finish in an always hard fought encounter.

The youth races complete for the day the next up was the turn of MTB men in the support race.  It was another golden race for young Glenullin racer Sean Bradley as he made it 3 wins in a row extending his lead at the top of the league and looking good to take the overall league win by Novembers end.  Darren Mulholland was also in action, another solid race saw him home with a top 20 finish completing 6laps almost bang on the 1 hour mark.

In the cyclocross B race Carl McWilliams, Stephen Halferty, Eunan McAleese and Nigel Gibson were at the start line for 6 laps of the demanding Ormeau park course.  Nigel had another cracking run, he has continued to improve over the course of the league finishing the race with a fantastic 6^th place, his first top 10 place.  The other lads also did well over a demanding race.  The ladies went off a minute ahead of the men, again Mairead McGurk was on the start line for the Carn Wheelers.  Another rock-solid effort from the Tyrone woman and another 4^thplace finish sees Mairead hold her 2^nd place in the overall rankings. 

The final race of the day took place at 2pm with the cyclocross men's A' race which was held over 7 laps of the main course.  Shane Elder, Martin Bradley, Joseph McCrory and Barry Russell were in action again.  Barry improved on last weeks finish with an 11^th place finish completing the race under the hour mark.  The other boys also put in a great race finishing strongly in the field.

After racing was concluded the riders were able to enjoy a great spread of hot food from the professional looking food tent with hot dogs, hot soup, sandwiches and cakes for all.   There was even a tray of homemade shortbread with the letters "XMTB" on them, thanks to the young club member Lewis Armstrong.  Many thanks to all the hardworking volunteers from Xmtb McConvey Cycling for putting on a great "slick" event.  The next round of the series will be at Falls Park in Belfast on Sunday 23 November hosted by VC Glendale.