The league has been more popular than ever this year with just over fifty members of Dromara CC taking part in one or more events. Paul Smyth, a young rider with great potential, has improved all year and deserves to be leading the league.

Four other riders are within striking distance and it might yet go down to the last event as it did in 2007. Twenty-eight riders signed on for Thursday night’s race including three juniors and two visitors.

The circuit, an eight and a half mile lap, was quite busy around the Annahilt village junction with a number of tractors with silage trailers passing back and forth making good use of the mild weather. There was little wind and only a light drizzle which arrived after the main bunch finished.

Due to the shorter evenings it was decided to run the race over only two laps with the four groups getting away with just two minutes between each group. This proved to be too small a gap for group three by group four who were very quickly caught even though there were ten riders in group three and only five in group four.

Half way round the second lap all the groups came together and the race stayed like this with over 20 riders together until after The Glebe Church corner when the big guns of Davy McKnight, Ronnie Smyth, Paul Smyth, visiting rider Fergus Rooney (Phoenix CC) and hot favourite Darren Weir started to increase the pace.

The race finished with a large bunch of 15 riders racing for the line and it was again Darren Weir who timed his charge to perfection just beating Ronnie Smyth for a hat trick of back-to-back race wins. Well done Darren! Noel Gibson and Neill Currie both had excellent sprints to get 3rd and 5th places as they were in group three.

A special mention to the three junior riders, Zak Hanna, who won his race after competing in the junior Irish Championships in Cork last weekend, Ryan Mallon who completed his fifth event for the club and to Alexander Magowan just back after a nasty accident last summer.

Many thanks to all the marshalls and timekeepers who helped out. Next week Dromara CC will be holding a ten mile time trail on the Downpatrick Road Ballynahinch. Due to light fading the first rider will be away at 6.50 pm.

Ulster MTB Cross Country Championships.

The Ulster Mountain biking Cross Country Championships will be hosted by Dromara Cycling Club at Dunmore Mountain near Spa, Ballynahinch.

This is the third year that Dromara CC have proudly held these prestigious championships but only the second time that the club have used the Dunmore course. Special thanks to the landowner, Mr Wightman, for continuing to support this sport by allowing this race to take place.

The course will be very similar to the one used in September 2007 with only minor modifications made after the recent heavy rains.

The senior course is approximately three miles and winds its way up and over the Dunmore mountain.