Dromara on top form at Donard

Dromara on top form at Donard

7 December 2016

DROMARA CC enjoyed a great awards night in the Primrose in Ballynahinch and a few excuses had been mentioned in preparation for the cyclocross race on Sunday organised by Shimna Wheelers and they certainly know how to design a course and run a race.

Thankfully, Dromara junior section members were the example of professionalism by getting to bed early and being fully prepared for the day’s events in Newcastle.

First up was Aoife Kellett in the U-8 race and with the Kellett fire in her belly she took off only to get held up at the dismount section, leaving her well back on the leaders. 

Most would just accept it as a bad day and take it easy but with the responsibility of the first Dromara cyclist on the course she dusted herself off and charged through the field. 

With laps running out she made an epic uphill sprint to give her an opportunity to sprint for fourth which she took.

Next up was James Armstrong who had words with his mechanic regarding getting his bike ready. From the race it certainly looks like we have another climber in our ranks as every lap they went up the steep hill, James would power ahead leaving riders in his wake. 

In fact, his climbing is only his second best skill as you should see him dismount and remount – we could all learn a thing or two from that technique. Rumour has it that he had a summer camp run by the Ulster off road commissionaire to perfect this skill. 

When the dust had settled James finished in an fantastic seventh in the U-10s race and could be his performance of the series.

In the U-12 race Benjamin Quigley stuck the race number on and gave a great performance in one of the most competitive races. Finishing in 10th place was his best finish this season.

In the U-14 race Fraser Harrower is certainly looking more comfortable in this race and battled through the crowd to take seventh place with only a few seconds making the difference to making the top five for a brilliant performance.

The MTB support race saw Colin McGready making a comeback to the off road division with the main aim to finally beat Neil Armstrong. 

The plan was simple – stick on Armstrong’s wheel and shadow him until the final sprint. The plan worked really well, but the final part of the plan was ruined by an eager Armstrong who wanted to keep this battle going. 

There were also other riders in the race, but really there was only one race to win. With Bangor the last opportunity for McGready to burst Armstrong’s bubble it could get nasty.

The B race saw a resurgent John Shanks prove that he may need to review his pre-race preparations – awards dinner and carrying someone else’s trophies home made sure that he had his best race of the season with a 12th place finish. 

Behind, John Paul Watson had a great race to take 20th place, Paul McLean proved that he could really get into this cyclocross racing with a great 24th place, and Adi Booth and Robert Davison battled it out for the bragging rights with Booth coming out on top.

Diane Wilson was Dromara’s only representative in the ladies cross country race and she showed her climbing credentials with a great performance to take seventh place.

The final race of the day was the men’s A race with eight Dromara representatives taking to the start line. 

Barry Kellett, looking to get himself back on the podium after last week, had a great start and was joined by Nathan Mullan for the first lap. 

On a fast, tough course Barry managed to settle into second place and hold off Graham Boyd lap after lap until the finish line. 

Nathan rued that fast start as he ped off the pace, but still recorded an awesome 13th place.

Davy Broome was the third representative in the team and was just pipped by the Newry Wheelers rider to take the second team and 18th place. 

Richard Cowan continued a slow improvement in performances and finally beat Peter Davison. Derek Graham continued his great form by taking 34th, just ahead of Brian Wilson who is really settling into this A racing scene. Paul Lavery took 49th to round up the Dromara results.

Finally, a shout out to Shimna Wheelers for a superbly run event and many thanks to all the helpers and volunteers who made this a race everyone is looking to tackle next year.