Bikedock Belles

'Brutal' was the favourite word of the day to best describe the course that was set to test even the most experienced riders. The course comprised of two loops either side of the river with riders meeting in a two way system over the Ivy bridge. There was no shortage of 'technical singletrack', drop offs, river splashes, rocky climbs and that was just for the Under 8's!!  (Well their course was not quite that difficult)  They had a very strong field of 30 riders!

The 'Big Dipper' was the real test on the course and it looked very scary, the rain over the previous few days had left the trails very wet and slippy just to add to the fun!

Comments from some of the riders yesterday:

'Brutal was the word of the day!!! Slippier than a slippy thing! I mean seriously? Controlling a 2 wheel drift whilst riding in a straight line!!! Hehe good fun tho! Big dipper was insane'

'Still alive!! But only just, that sure showed you what you were made of'

'Hesitate and Die'   (This was said in humour) we hope!!

The ladies got started shortly after 12pm with the Mens Sports class getting a 1min lead (because they needed it to get away from the girls?!?), Julie went out hard from the beginning, took pole position and quickly found her pace. The lead bunch of girls had caught the tail of the men through the first of many technical drops. Julie had to quickly unclip and dismount to avoid the bottle neck, catching her shoe on the bars of current 2nd place female rider Jule Rea, in perfect sportsman (lady)ship she kindly untangled Julies foot from her bars and by the then the course was clear for them to continue to see what the next corner had in store.

The Womens Sport Class had 3 gruelling laps to complete, Julie (Dromara CC) maintained her lead from the start and stretched it out each lap from Anne Duffy (Newry Wheelers) Dianne Keys Who finished strong in 3rd again putting in a very strong performance.

Well done to all the girls taking part, this was a tough event , hopefully we will see all of you out over the winter for some Cyclo Cross fun.

Ding Dongx

Julie