MUD FEST FOR ROUND 5 OF THE CYCLOCROSS LEAGUE IN BANGOR

Sunday the 8th of November saw the continuation of this season cyclocross league with round 5 hosted by North Down CC in Bangor and after a really dry start to the season the weather took its revenge on Sunday with heavy rain and strong winds for all the days races it seems the weather may have kept a few riders indoors with numbers down slightly on previous weeks however Carn Wheelers were well represented and recorded some fantastic results throughout the different categories .

As alway the under 6 racers were first away and Jay Gibson is really starting to settle in and had a great 7th place finish and not to be upstaged by his younger brother Riley Gibson rolled out a new bike and powered to a very strong 4th place finish in the under 8 race( a wee bird has told me the 2 boys have there own cyclocross training course at home) its obvious the hard work is paying off we had no under 10 racers  this week so our next riders up were the under 12 with the Russell twins Travis Harkness and Curtis Neill starting for Carn Wheelers all 4 boys have impressed this season and showed great improvement and today was even better with Travis taking the win with curtis in 5th place and Frank and Tom Russell just missing the top 10 on this occasion .In the under 14 race we had no boys so it was up to the girls to fly the flag for the club and they didn't let us down with Katie Neill continuing her impresive form of late with a 2nd place finish and Darcy Harkness coming home in 6th as with the under 14 we had no under 16 boys today either so it was up to Anna Russell and Emma Elder to do the business and in a really tough race which ebbed and flowed which saw the girls push as hard as they physically could the race finished with Emma in 2nd and Anna in 3rd.

This was another impressive day from all our youth riders with some splendid results in absolutely atrocious conditions well done to you all and keep up the hard work and most of all enjoy you bikes .

As ground conditions continued to worsen with every race amid the continued downpour it was time to get the cyclocross races under way with the mens B race and womens races first away, in the B race Nigel Gibson was revelling in the conditions as he continued his return to cross racing with a brilliant 16th place finish out of 77 riders (i hear the A race calling) well done Nigel and in the womens race Mairead McCrory also continues to impress as she battled her way to a 7th place finish in the ever growing field of women racing cyclocross with some really strong fields every week .

The A race was the final race of the day and by now the course resembled a ploughed field rather than a playing field but after all this is CYCLOCROSS and thats's all part and parcel of it .Carn Wheelers had 6 riders in the A race Barry Russell, Joe McCrory ,Johnny Taylor,Shane Elder and Stephen and Ryan Walsh as the race unfolded there were mixed fortunes for the riders with Ryan Walsh having to withdraw on the forst lap with a mechanical problem while Shane got a flat wheel on the 5th lap and also retired early the rest however rode on with grit and determination on  a course were in places it was faster to run even on the flat sections than cycle as the race finished it was Stephen Walsh who was the 1st Carn man in 11th place with Johnny hot on his heels in 13th Joe came home in 18th with Barry in 25th in a field of 60 riders .As the season has reached the midway point you can see the senior riders like the youth are improving week on week  and pushing further up the leaderboard keep up the hard work everybody and hopefully the season will continue to bring the results your effort deserves .

It would be remiss of me not to thank North Down CC and their band of volunteers who braved terrible conditions to host the race and make it all happen without these volunteers there would be no races well done to you one and all