The Cycling Ireland Open Racing Calendar got under way on Saturday 05 March, with local club Banbridge CC hosting the Travers Engineering Annaclone GP. Traditionally a gruelling test of winter fitness, we had 4 riders representing the club – Gareth and Stevie in the A2 peloton and James and Pete in the A3s. With this…
With no awards night last year, thanks to Covid restrictions, it was great to get a night out together as a club to reflect on the last two years. For a change of scenery this year, the venue was the Belmont House Hotel in Banbridge. We would like to thank the Belmont for hosting us…
With the bike industry still booming and the gravel sector continuing to see a huge increase in uptake, we are seeing this reflected at club level, with 300% more gravel bikes in the club than this time last year! Fair enough, this might only mean we’ve gone from 1 to 3, but it’s an increase…
On Saturday past (11th September) a band of merry men set off for the lakelands of Fermanagh, for the Audax Ireland Fermanagh 200. With 2021 being the centenary year for the Audax Club Parisien, this was also the Ulster Centenary event. Arriving at Ferney Park (home of Ballinamallard United FC) for a start time of…
The Hugo Loughran GP, hosted by Island Wheelers, on the Ballycrummy circuit (outside Armagh) was held on Friday 23rd July. Always a popular race on the calendar, with a slightly different atmosphere given it’s held on a Friday evening. Two races were held on the evening – an A3/Junior race and an A4 race. We…
On Saturday past, Armagh Down Cycling Club hosted the Hilltown GP. Over the past few years, this has become a race that many (particularly A4 racers) target, with the hilltop finish often providing a different outcome than the bunch sprint often seen in other races. However, owing to current Covid restrictions, the organisers opted for…
With restrictions eased, Saturday 24th April 2021 saw the recommencement of open race cycling in Northern Ireland with the Travers Engineering Annaclone GP – and the first opportunity for newcomer Pete to take part in his first ever cycling race! We asked Pete few for a few words to sum up his experience of the…
Over the summer months I began looking for a winter bike. I had initially been looking for a used bike, but with limited availability and inflated prices, it soon became clear to me that my best option was to buy a new bike, although not wanting to ‘break the bank’ it would be very much…
They say every cloud has a silver lining and to an extent this phrase can also be applied to the lockdown we endured earlier in the year. With club runs put on hold for a couple of months, this provided the opportunity for many of our members to turn their attention to longer, solo, self-supported…
Last year, the proceeds from our annual sportive were set aside for Air Ambulance NI. With AANI being an incredibly busy charity, it took a little bit of organising to find a suitable date, but finally it was arranged that Saturday 25 January would be the cheque handover, with a visit to their base at the…
Having a club mountain bike day is something that has been discussed on and off for quite a while now. The date of 30 December was set aside and thankfully a good number turned up at Castlewellan Forest Park to have a go on the trails. We had a mixture of abilities – some experienced…
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