Banbridge CC in action at Lady Dixon Park

The course itself was a mixture of parkland and fast flowing forest sections and with the recent dry spell was going to be a very quick race for everybody. Banbridge CC was out in force with riders from youth to vets.

After the underage races had took place it was the turn of the sports riders. Stephen Prentice was the only rider from the club to take to the start line for this race and for the first time this year racing against both his main rivals, Martin Grimley (Dromara CC) and Ronnie Ogilby (XMTB).

When the whistle blew Stephen Prentice got the better start of his rivals into the first corner and moved up into fourth place overall, he proceed to hold this position for the first lap while Ronnie and Marty where never too far away.

By lap two he had dropped back to sixth place and stayed there till the end of the three lap race while keeping his sparing partners behind him. Having pushed so hard he was delighted with this result and was also the 3rd Ulster rider home putting him in a nice points position in the Ulster league.

Next race up was the Vets class where Banbridge CC had five riders in total taking part. From the off William Mulligan took off with his two main rivals, Paul McMenamin (Leisure Lakes) and Robert Lamont (XMTB).

This was going to be the race to watch as all three guys are aiming for the title at the end of the year. By the end of lap one nothing separated these guys, in fact they where racing so close rubbing off wheels could be heard in the tight forest sections.

It wasn’t until the start of lap three when Paul McMenamin made his move and opened up a small gap on William and with every pedal stoke William tried he just couldn’t close the gap Paul had opened up.

William was able to open a small gap on Robbie and this was the was way the race finished with William taking a very respectable second place in this six lap race. Jonathan Buller had a very close race with two riders from the south and for the whole race only seconds separated these three guys for the whole race only to be pipped to the line by Philip Tighe (Epic MTB).

Paul Anderson made a welcome return back to mtbing after taking some time out last year to get ready for the marathon. Maurice Mayne and William Forsythe all had a good race with each other throughout the whole race, some of the laps only seconds kept these guys apart, but as the race went on the different training style that Paul has been used to started to take its toll and started to fade as the laps went by but still managed to complete the race.

William was able to open a gap on his rival and team mate Maurice and this gap proved very valuable to him as he got a puncture on the last lap but still managed to hold off Maurice to the finish line.

In the Junior race Matt Adair lined up against his main rival Robert Scanlon (Team Worc). From the off young Matt took off and by the end of the first lap he had opened up a 30sec advantage over Robert.

With each lap going by Matt continued taking time out of his Robert who this year to date has yet to get the better of young Matt. By lap five out of six Matt was over two minutes clear and on the last lap started to slow down as his lead couldn’t be taken bar an issue with the bike.

Matt crossed the line with both hands in the air, taking the win with two and a half minutes to spare making this his third NPS race win out of three to date.