Banbridge CC put on another great event at Castlewellan on Sunday. This was the last MTB race of the season and was the rearranged race following the deluge of 6 weeks ago. The weather and course conditions could not have been better. Once again Robin Seymour took the win. But just for a change here is a picture of Peter Buggle who was second. Full results here . Pictures here

Despite their dominance of distance running, no black African has ever cycled the Tour de France. If Nicholas Leong gets his way, they will soon

Ever wondered whether the face of cycling would change the minute the Kenyan’s or Ethiopian’s got involved? They dominate long distance running, would they dominate long distance cycling? I have often wondered what might happen if they were in the sport and often put their not being in the sport down to the finances it costs to make it to the top. Well, it seems I am not a lone in these wonders. Take this superb article from the Guardian website yesterday and see what you think. Quite incredible and very interesting… MORE »

Aiden McDonald won the Elite category of the race almost from start to finish. Run off on a very scenic course, with a lot of soft ground going was heavy, with some riders doing the entire race in the granny gear. Neil McGimpsey won the juniors. Full report and results may be seen on the Cycling Ulster site on this link: http://www.cyclingulster.com/index.php?thenewsid=2914&newstable=news

And a few pictures can be found here - Pictures 

Many of you may not know about the Trans Rockies - one of the toughest mountain bike races in the world. It is a 7 day stage race in the Kootenay Rockies south of Calgary near the American border. A number of Irish MTBers and a few others were in the field of 300 teams of 2. All of the Irish completed - Evan Ryan and Matty Blayney for the second time. Results and reports can be found on the Trans Rockies site: www.transrockies.com/trc/index.htm . Below is a link to photos, mainly of the Irish, with a lot of scene shots. All were taken within 2 miles of the start/finish of each stage. The boys however were really out in the wilderness for between 4-8 hours per day, covering a total of 550Km and over 17,000 meters of climbing - more than twice the height of Everest, on a bike! It is the experience of a life time. Look out for it on the Extreme Sports channel some time in the future.

Trans Rockies Photos