Date: Friday 11 September 2015
Event: Kinning GP
Location: Orangefield Park, Belfast
Host club: Kinning Cycles
As a pre-season warm up, Glenn Kinning took on the task of organising his club’s first cyclo-cross race at his local venue of Orangefield Park in Belfast. The park hosts a number of football pitches as well as walking areas but, for the cycling fraternity, Orangefield is about the outdoor race track. Glenn has always had the idea of incorporating the track into a wider race which would bring new people to the venue to have a go at racing on the tarmac surface with the high banks at either end. To get the event fitted into the busy calendar, a Friday evening was chosen which included laying on a bouncy castle for the small ones and catering vans supplying tea & coffee as well as burgers and chips in a cone. True Belgium style including our own Dany Blondeel on the microphone.
Given the time of the year and the limited daylight, just two events were held. At 6pm the B-race Cyclo-cross men lined up at one side of the track, behind them the Under 16s, then the Under 14s then the mountain bike support races for both men and women. They had half a lap of the track to complete, cutting over a grass section to slow them down on lap one, before exiting the arena and heading out along the grass for the main cyclo-cross course. There were the usual switch-backs, plank obstacles, off-camber sections, but it also included a sand trap thanks to a local supplier.
The Cyclo-cross B’ race saw a great battle between the top 3 riders across the 6 lap event. Connor Young (Ballymena Road Club) pulled away to take the win from Stephen Hutchinson (Cookstown Cycling Club) and Jonathan Boyle (TC Racing). In the Under 16s race, Thomas Creighton (Xmtb McConvey Cycles) was the first male home but it was a sprint to the line for Conor Halvey (Team Powerhouse) and PJ Dougan (Errigal Cycling Club) with Conor getting second by a whisker. Emma Elder (Carn Wheelers) was the only U16 female attending.
In the Under 14s race Dean Harvey (Xmtb McConvey Cycles) finished ahead of Ciaran Dixon (Phoenix CC) and James Campbell (Xmtb McConvey Cycles) in their 3 lap race. Sarah Elder (Carn Wheelers) finished ahead of Summer McGibbon (Trail Demons CC). In the mountain bike support race Christian Nachtigall (Phoenix CC) finished ahead of Scott Maitland (Killinchy CC) with Barry Greer (Kinning Cycles) third. In the female mountain bike support race Trudy Brown (VC Glendale) took a comfortable win ahead of nearest rival Alison McMullan (North Down CC) with newcomer to the sport, Norma Rea taking third.
At 7pm the Cyclo-cross A’race and females race took place. Lined up on the front of the grid were some of the top names in Irish Cyclo-cross, Robin Seymour, Roger Aiken and Glenn himself. They were joined by Brendan Doherty (VC Glendale), Graham Boyd (Xmtb McConvey Cycles), Alex Donald (Phoenix CC), Barry Kellett (Dromara CC), Cameron McIntyre (Banbridge CC) and Johnny Taylor (Carn Wheelers).
This was a 7 lap race, and a race to try to stay ahead of the oncoming rain clouds and the decreasing light. Home turf advantage soon became a factor as Glenn got into his stride and pulled away from the chasing pack. Among the early contenders was junior rider Cameron McIntyre with Graham Boyd in the mix as well. However, Roger and Robin started to pull away from the others to have their own battle with Roger holding second place until the last lap when Robin nipped ahead. It was easy to guess in advance of the race who was going to be on the podium, but not so easy to get the right order (Glenn, Robin, Roger).
In the females race, there was another three way head to head with Claire Oakley (Xmtb McConvey Cycles), Gill Smith (Phoenix CC) and Lisa Millar (Dromara CC) swapping positions and keeping close racing throughout. These three were always within sight of one another but on the final lap Claire just managed to get ahead of Gill on the final curve of the race track to take first place with Lisa not far behind in third.
Congratulations to all the winners and to all those who came down to take part. A huge thanks to Glenn Kinning and his body of volunteers who came along to help out, including family, friends, club members and those from other clubs. A personal thanks from me to the timing team who had a devil of a job to record the riders as they zipped past the finish line on each lap. Baptism of fire for: Lindsay, Jim, Thomas, Cherith and Barry. If you have any queries over the results please email me (martin@ulsterxc.com).
Feedback from the whole event was very positive so hopefully this will not be a one-off event. Next time we may need floodlights for the prize giving and food eating time!
Commissaires: Martin Grimley and Lisa Millar
Results here
Photos
Links to follow
Report by Martin Grimley
