Unfancied McCabe wins Irish Cyclo Cross crown
WITH the year so young that the resolutions are still holding firm, Cuchulainn Cycling Club has crowned its first national champion of 2019.
Johnny McCabe travelled to Cork’s Foto Island for the National Cyclo Cross Championships more in hope than expectation as his winter season had been derailed by a broken bone sustained during the summer.
His lack of racing meant that he wasn’t noted as a favourite in the Masters 60 race and did not get a front row start.
However Johnny tore into the technical course and quickly battled his way to the front of the field. Meanwhile, running in second place was his long time friend and training partner Eamonn McConvey from Newry who rides with McConvey Wheelers.
These two enjoyed an epic battle and pulled away from the rest of the field.
Eventually Johnny emerged as the strongest and he took the flag, a feat that his late brother Gerry performed years earlier when he won the Masters 40 Cyclo Cross Championships. Dublin’s Terence O’Neill would take the bronze on this occasion.
Also on the off-road scene, Meave Baxter’s 2018 season was recently highlighted in Ireland’s premier Mountain Biking Magazine, which is called ‘Free Wheelin’.
Meave was listed as one of the female biker’s of the year. Her 2018 season included a second place in the Gravity Enduro Ireland Series, second First Tracks Enduro Cup and finally Ulster Enduro Champion.