Ulster MTB Round 3 25th May 2014

Sunday the 25th of May saw the Carn Wheelers MTB  crew descend on Lady Dixon park in Belfast  for round 3 of the Ulster MTB series which doubled up as round 3 of the NPS series as well.

Carn Wheelers had 21 riders from Under 8 to Senior 2 with some  great results.

The week leading up to the race was quite wet and with some heavy showers the evening before the race the riders were faced with very tricky conditions with lots of mud making the course even tougher than usual.

First to the line were the under 8's with Carn Wheelers represented by Eimer Skelly who finished in a superb 2nd place in the girls race the under 10's followed soon after with Travis Harkness and Curtis Neill turning out for the boys race and Eva Gordon taking part in the girls race.  After a tough race Travis and Curtis finished strongly to show continued improvement as the year goes on and Eva had yet another fine race to get on the podium again for a 2nd place finish.

In the under 12 race Ryan Skelly battled well over a tough course and had another really strong finish.

In the under 12 Girls race Sarah Elder had a strong 2nd place finish followed closely by Darcey Harkness and Katie Neill.

A special mention for new member Sinead McGuigan who was taking part in her first ever MTB race and rode really well to finish the race in conditions which were very challenging to say the least.

Next to the line were the under 14's under 16's and the senior 4 men with the u14's doing 2 half laps and the u16's and senior 4's doing 2 full laps. I can't emphasise enough how tricky conditions were but to make matters worse it started to rain half way through this set of races and made some parts of the course unrideable thus there was a lot of running to be done.  Despite the conditions the u14 boys Andrew Gordon and Niall Skelly had a great run finishing really well in a strong field and Emma Elder managed to get the nod in the u14 girls with 1st place. The strong club results weren't to end there though with Sean Bradley showing why he is a talent to be watched closely over the coming months and years with a superb 4th place on the day in an under 16 field as strong as it has been all year.

It was now the turn of the senior riders to follow in the tracks of our successful youth squad and true to form they didn't disappoint with some really strong finishes.  In the senior 4 race Paul Taylor, Gareth Skelly and Mathew McCombe all put in great performances with Paul taking a hard earned 8th place followed closely by Gareth and Mathew. The senior 3 race once again had a big field of 40 plus riders with 4 Carn Wheelers taking to the line.  Best placed finisher on the day was Martin Bradley with a fine 7th  place.  Nigel Gibson followed in 11th place and Darren Mulholland and Tommy McKenna in 15th and 16th.  Having all 4 Carn men finish in the top 20 in probably the most competitive category of the year is a great achievement well done men.

The final race of the day with Carn Wheeler involvement was the senior 2 category again another strong field was assembled with Ryan Walsh turning out for the Carn crew. This was Ryan's first race for a wee while but he showed that he is as strong as ever with a very strong points finish.

As is now a Carn Wheeler tradition at the Lady Dixon race we had the customary barbecue to finish the day of in style.  It might not have been the best of weather but everyone enjoyed the hot dogs and burgers none the less. A special thanks to Darren for bringing the barbecue again this year.

Finally a big thanks to McConvey Cycles for hosting another great event and well done to all who represented the club on the day.