Saturday was unusually a quiet day for the club but we we had some of our academy riders racing in The Orwell Wheelers CX race at McCrystals track in Bellurgen with Fiadh Craig 2nd in the U10 girls, Aoife Craig 2nd in the U14 Girls and Aoibhinn Sharkey first junior and 8th overall in the ladies race.
On Sunday our MTB section took to the trails at Kilbroney forest park in Rostrevor…. after a lung bursting climb to the upper slopes the guys stopped for a photo and then took to the red trails for a long technical descent. Everybody made it down in one piece although we did have a couple of swimmers trying to get an early bike wash! Down at the bottom lunch was served before heading home after a very enjoyable day out. There are some videos on You Tube by Colm and Pearse…. links below
Also on Sunday the Ulster Cyclo-cross league continued hosted by Breffni Wheelers. Set at Castle Saunderson, Cavan on a glorious autumn day it was a perfect picture opportunity for Toby to produce some stunning photographs. We had 13 racers across the board and starting off proceedings was Fiadh Craig who was 3rd in the U10 Girls. She was followed by Jake McKee who came in 5th in the U12 boys. Aoife craig bettered her 2nd the previous day in Bellurgen by topping the podium in the U14 Girls and Corran McCourt who was 5th in the U14 Boys. Cara Suckling was 3rd in the U16 Girls. The U16 Boys this year has been a see saw battle between great friends Caleb McCreevy and James Armstrong who finished 2nd and 3rd respectively with or ex academy rider Curtiss McKee pipping them for the top prize.
Moving on to the adults and Trudy Brown continued her comeback with a 3rd in the ladies. We had an impressive 5 riders in the men’s A race with David McKee finishing ahead of Neill Armstrong, Gerard Craig , Sean McCourt and Stuart Suckling.
Also, over in France on Sunday Aine Doherty continued her amazing season representing Ireland in the Junior race at the European Cyclo-cross championships. Aine finished 44th on the day in what was a very challenging course with continuous ankle-deep mud….so well done!
On the road Jim took a leisure group down to Oxford Island for Coffee and Buns and it was great to see some members return to the roads after a while out of the saddle. Lastly at this time of the year it is usually a wind down and tick over until the new road season but incredibly Paul Murphy decided to do a 144mile solo ride……. there’s a saying in these parts ‘not wise’ but well done big Murph!
