2009 Irish DH NPS Rd 3 - Rostrevor

The 3rd round of the Irish DH NPS for this year was held by the CRC club in Rostrevor, Co. Down on the 23rd and 24th of May. Tipped to be one of the best events of the year, and it didn't disappoint.

Starting at 9:30am on the Saturday, the skies were grey and it looked like the rocky track would soon be extremely slippy. Happily though, the rain kept off until later on, but it wasn't too late to turn the track to a river for later practice.Note to readers: James (JDilleen couldn't make this round, so I did this report for him)


Uplifts were amazing, always on time, and no-one had to wait much longer than 3 or 4 minutes. Although the fire road for the uplift was pretty rough, no bikes were broken, the worst happening would have been a few scratches.

Race Video:

by dhdan13

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Luckily, Sunday dawned with clear, blue skies and the sun was plentiful. Practice got off to a great start, with the track running sweet, and the previously slippy rocks turned grippy.


U 14's
Racing started at 12:00, with the U 14's. Cameron Conforth came first on both runs, beating 2nd place Angus Fyffe by 18 secs. Cameron's wee brother, Luke Conforth (aged 12) finished off the podiums.


U 16's
With Dan Sheridan missing, 1-5th place was wide open for anyone, Kyle Rimmer took first place, with Kipper (Christopher McGlinchy) taking second and Chris Murphy ending this category.


Ladies
Maeve Baxter beat off stiff competition from Nathalie Jedda and Silvia Gallagher to win the Ladies Category.


Super Vets
Tom Sheridan won Super Vets by the biggest winning margin of the day, though kindly donating the £50 prize back to the Baxter's chosen charity. Peter Popham took second.


Vets
Stevie Davidson won Vets by 12 and a half seconds, beating Stephen Graham and Colin Finley in 2nd and 3rd respectively.


Sports and Seniors
Peter Lane won the ever popular sports category, with English visitor William Jones taking first in the Seniors.


Masters
CRC had a podium clean sweep for Masters, taking 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Michael Cowan came first, with Ricky Mckillen and Dale McMullan coming second and third respectively.


Juniors
David Graham won Juniors by 0.071 secs from Gavin Carroll, showing that the future for Irish Downhill is certainly fast. Marc Potts finished the podium.


Elites
Elites was won by Bike Dock's Colin Ross, Giant's Jamie McCullough came second by a minute 0.779 secs, and 2 Stage's Gareth Mckee came 3rd.


Down and Out
A big "Get Well Soon" to the rider who crashed on the Road Gap while pulling a massive whip!


A big thank you to Peter McDonagh for all the pics for this report (Link to his site below), and also to Dan Sheridan for the video.

www.petermcdonagh.co.uk/