Date: Sunday 15 September 2019
Event: Brian Kinning GP
Location: Orangefield Park, Belfast
Host club: Kinning Cycles
The opening event for the 2019/2020 Cyclo-cross season in Ireland took place at Orangefield Park in Belfast, hosted by Kinning Cycles. This is the third year for the memorial race, the GP Brian Kinning, and had attracted around 300 competitors. The park has lots of facilities for football and boasts the only velodrome in Ulster which was used as part of the course. The team had spent all day Saturday and Sunday morning setting up the course which took in the various banks and wooded areas of the park. The weather had stayed mostly dry all day setting up for a superb return to cyclo-cross.
To start the day the Under 6s fun race took place with 19 young riders completing two laps of the short course. Goodie bags were dished out at the finish line.
Next up were the Under 8s with 18 boys and 7 girls using the same course as the Under 6s had. The timekeepers had their work cut out for them with riders managing to lap the course every 30 seconds! All received a goodie bag at the end. Post event the results came out that Jack McGahan (Square Wheels) took the win with Dylan Campbell (Unattached) second and Will Sunderland (Apollo Cycling Team) third. Among the girls it was Aoife Campbell (Square Wheels) who crossed the line first with Amelia Finnegan (Apollo Cycling Team) second and Abbie Kinning (Kinning Cycles) third.
The Under 10s course was much longer and more challenging with 2 laps to complete. Eunan Campbell (Square Wheels) took the win ahead of a sprint finish between Josh McClune (Team Madigan C.C.) and Darragh Murphy (Rostrevor Mountain Bike Club), finishing in this order. Aoife Kellett (Dromara Cycling Club) won the girls’ race with Clodagh Quigley (Foyle CC) second and Erin Lunney (Unattached) third.
The Under 12s used the same course as the Under 10s but had to do 3 laps with the added excitement of starting in the velodrome. There was a very close finish between Josh Gallagher (Orchard CC) and James Armstrong (Dromara Cycling Club) with Josh taking the top step of the podium. Curtis McKee (Maryland Wheelers) completed the podium in third place. Cara Suckling (Maryland Wheelers) was the first girl home with Ffion Dolan (Cuchulainn CC) second and Elisa Sunderland (Apollo Cycling Team) third.
After a break for podium presentations the next set of racers lined up in the velodrome. First off were the Under 16 boys, followed by the Under 14 boys, then the Cyclo-cross women (a strong field of 18 riders), then the Under 16 girls, Under 14 girls and finally the lone entry in the Women’s MTB race – Karen Wynne (Foyle CC).
The Under 16 boys raced over 4 laps of the full course with Conal Scully (Carlow RCC) taking the win ahead of Travis Harkness (Carn Wheelers) and Conor Gallagher (Errigal Cycling Club). The Under 16 girls had 3 laps to complete with Annie Roche (Scott Orwell Wheelers Cycling Club) taking first, Erin Creighton (McConvey Cycles) second and Katie Reilly (Scott Orwell Wheelers Cycling Club) third.
The Under 14 boys and Under 14 girls both had 3 laps to complete. Seth Dunwoody (Shelbourne/Orchard CC) won the boys’ race finishing about 20 seconds ahead of Oisin May (Orwell Wheelers) with Sam Coleman (Orchard CC) third. Aine Doherty (VC Glendale) finished well ahead of Aliyah Rafferty (Island Wheelers) in the Under 14 girls’ race with Tori Moffitt (Phoenix CC) competing the podium.
The Cyclo-cross women’s race saw newcomer Roisin Lally (Cycling Performance Squad) take the win in the 5 lap race ahead of Niamh McKiverigan (Powerhouse Sport) with Darcey Harkness (Carn Wheelers) third. Caoimhe May (Scott Orwell Wheelers Cycling Club) picked up the first unplaced Junior women prize (3rd Junior overall) with Rachel Irvine (The Bike House CC) 5th and Gill Smith (Unattached) 6th.
The Men’s Cyclo-cross B’ race saw the biggest entry of the day with 83 riders lining up to complete 5 laps of the course. Paul Ferguson (The Bike House CC) lead the early laps but it was Kyle Fisher (Lakeland) who took the win ahead of Damian Lagan (Inishowen Wheelers) with Paul finishing third. Dean Burnside (Island Wheelers) was 4th with Ray Brownfield (North Down CC) 5th and Peter McBride (Banbridge CC) 6th.
The final race of the day was for the Men’s Cyclo-cross A’ race which was held over 7 laps. Current Irish Champion David Conroy (Scott Eurocycles.com) had an initial battle with Darnell Moore (Caldwell Cycles Omagh) but David managed to stretch a gap on Darnell to take a decisive win in the end. Darnell finished second with Graham Boyd (McConvey Cycles) managing to hold off Sean Nolan (Navan Road Club) to take 3rd and 4th respectively. Finishing 5th, and first unplaced Junior, was Darren Rafferty (Island Wheelers). Thomas Creighton (McConvey Cycles) was 6th with Race Director Glenn Kinning (Kinning Cycles) taking 7th. First unplaced M40 was Kevin Keane (St. Tiernans Cycling Club) who finished 10th. First unplaced M50 rider was John Bogues (Phoenix CC) who will be Race Director next week.
After the races the riders could enjoy the catering available on site, including ice-cream! Many thanks to Glenn Kinning and all the team for putting on a super event. Next week sees another cyclo-cross race in Belfast, this time at Lady Dixon Park hosted by Phoenix CC. For details see www.ulstercyclocross.com
Commissaires: Lisa Millar, Jim Adams and Martin Grimley
Report by Martin Grimley
Full results here
Photos
The Belgium Project (Facebook) – here
Richard Cowan (Facebook) – here
Fran Hollywood (Facebook) – here
Other report link
Belgium Project here
