Terry McEneaney taking part in round eight of the mountain biking league at Bellurgan Park
The eighth round of The Bike Station Summer Cycling League finished atop of the climb at Flagstaff, making it the most gruelling race of the series.
The riders have some 30km of hard racing in their legs before making the dreaded left turn at Davy’s Pub for the 3km ascent, where the sweat stinging the eyes means that the spectacular views cannot be appreciated.
First to conquer the climb was Lionel Mothion, Dundalk’s resident French cyclist. Lionel was part of group five that managed to catch group four yet stay away from group six. Lionel was untouchable on the climb and came home for a solo victory with Benny Smith in second and Alan Malone in third.
The second race went to another mountain goat with Paul Howard blasting up the steep ascent ahead of John McDonnell and Brendan Crosby. Underage rider Conor McKeown had a solid ride to take fourth place.
After eight rounds it is the two Alans at the top of the table, with Alan Bingham and Alan Malone both sitting pretty on 49 points. Benny Smith is a further three points back in third place and the sprinting sensation Val Gargan is in fourth on 45 points.
We’re also up to Round 8 of the mountain biking league, which was once again in Bellurgan Park. For the night a slightly altered course was used and riders faced eight laps of a 1.7km technical course, which had a new trail added thanks to the club’s members.
Race one saw Liam Burns eventually drop Jason Malone after a ding-dong battle between the pair, with Brendan Callaghan in third. Race two saw an epic battle between four riders, David Hoey, John Noone, Greg Clifford and Paul Durnin, that went on over the eight laps. David Hoey and John Noone managed to pull away towards the end, to finish first and second respectively. Greg Clifford came home in third. Round nine sees the riders battle the elements on the open mountain.
