Team Madigan hosted the 2nd round of the Ulster League which also doubled up as round 4 of the Irish League in blistering sunshine at Magheramorne Quarry.

The days racing began with the thrills and spills of 23 under 8 riders. Dust was flying as these young riders set off. Jack Baird enjoyed his second win of the season and set the trend for the Banbridge Club taking the first win of the day, closely followed by clubmate Chris Curry in second. Next Bann rider home was James Buller followed by Dromara's Lewis Armstrong. Sam Baird enjoying the sunshine completed the field for Bann.

The under 10's saw Mark Buller as the only Bann rider for the 4 lap race. Mark having a convincing start to finish win giving Bann youth the second win of the day. Dromara CC's Drew Armstrong had a good race to claim 3rd folowed by his clubmates Max Melville and Ben Hanna.

The under 12 raced over a longer 2 lap course allowing Bann Riders John Buller and Richard Baird to push each other to the limit, John just getting the verdict on the line. Shannon Buller rode well being the only girl in the race to take a great fifth.

Banbridge CC 's James Curry left any competition behind riding to another great victory in the under 14's. Bann's Joseph Baird hit mechanical problems whilst lying third, but after overcoming these was able to finish the race.

Youth report By Ann Baird

 

28 riders lined up for the sports class with the usual Stephen prentice getting as close to the start line and ahead of his 2 main rivals, Marty grimley (dromara cc) and Ronnie ogilby (xmtb). After a delayed start due to a missing lap top for the results the riders took off. From the off Marty made the jump on his 2 rivals while Stephen and Ronnie where close behind in that order. Halfway through the 1st lap Ronnie made his move and got passed Stephen who was suffering a lot from the heat. infact so much so he started being sick on the side of the track. This cost him so much time that he wasn’t in a position to play catch up. On the 2nd lap the sickness got worse but managed and was only to glad to see the finish line finished 15th overall.

By the time the vets got underway the heat had risen even more. With William Mulligan, Jonathan Buller, William Forsythe, Maurice Mayne and Paul Anderson taking to the line in this event. William Mulligan took off with his 2 main rivals, Paul Mc Menamin (Leisure Lakes) and Robert Lamont (Xmtb) as this has now become the norm for these 3 guys at a pace which was as warm as the air temperature with the rest of the field in tow. But halfway around the first lap disaster struck for Paul Anderson for the second time this year Paul suffered yet another puncture at the futurist part of the course ending any hopes of a strong finish. Hopefully this will be the end of Paul’s bad luck so far this year. By the time the top 3 came round to the start the 2nd lap Paul Mc Menamin had opened up a small gap on Robert Lamont and William Mulligan . While down the field there was also a very close battle going on between Jonathan Buller, William Forsythe, Maurice Mayne with only a few seconds separating these guys after the first lap. As each lap went by and the tempature kept rising the time gaps also started to increase between all of the strong banbridge riders. With the attitude of never giving up until the end William Mulligan kept the pressure on Paul and Robert right to the end but had to settle for 3rd place in this event. Well done William. Jonathan Buller started also started to increase his lead on his other 2 team rivals and as the race developed and by the end of the race came across the line with a comfortable lead on both William Forsythe, Maurice Mayne. William and Maurice both had a good race with each other, both swapping places on numerous places on the course with Maurice taking the line just ahead of William. The battle between these 2 guys looks to be set for the rest of the year.

In the Junior race Matt Adair again lined up against his main rival Robert Scanlon (Team worc). And Matt being Matt took off like he was on fire and quickly opened up a sizable lead over Robert. Starting lap 2 Matt opened up over a 30sec lead and was quickly catching the top 3 elite riders who started a minute ahead of him. By lap 2 the gap was over a minute and was less than 10 seconds behind the top elite riders. Over the next 2 laps Matt crossed the line for yet another win 4 out of 4 and had an advantage of 3 minutes ahead of Robert. Matt also set the fastest lap of the day with a time of 19.30. 25 seconds quicker than any other rider.

MTB Report by Stephen Prentice