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1000s celebrate MCN return to north London
MCN returned to Ally Pally in north London at the weekend for the Devitt MCN Ally Pally Show and Supersprint joined by stars, race bikes and thousands of spectators. “We wanted to put on a different kind of biking event in the capital: one with noisy live action that you couldn’t see anywhere else at its heart,” said MCN’s MD Rob Aherne. “We also wanted to find a way of bringing MCN back to Ally Pally because it’s such a lovely venue and we’ve run some great events here in the past. And when we came up with the idea of running bikes down the middle of the Great Hall, the whole thing just fell into place.” Aishling Cahill travelled from Sutton with husband, Martin, and son, Dylan. “We’d never been to Ally Pally before,” she said. “We go past on the train all the time. It’s such an amazing space.”
As well as the sprint, the event also had celebrity races with Carl Fogarty, James Whitham, John McGuinness and more competing in slalom, sprint and wheelie events aboard Honda CRF100s.
“It got quite heated,” said McPint afterwards. “Fogarty is still competitive. He’s off his head. It’s a bit of fun – but we all want to win.” Fogarty added: “What could be better than doing wheelies and skids on motorbikes?”
While bike builder Allen Millyard took his 250MX-engined Honda SS50 down the track too. “Down that straight with the adrenaline going, the sound reverberating and that view. Where else in the world can you get that?”
‘We wanted a different kind of biking event’