The Newport Rocky Mountain High gravel/off-road event had something for every participant, some came to just ramble around the gravel tracks others were a tad more competitive and raced the route.
One thing for sure by the end of the day everyone was in awe of the majestic scenery and beauty of the area. With two event distances to choose from most participants opted for the 60k distance, with tough climbs up in the Nephin’s and a river crossing to be negotiated, these routes is what attracted cyclists to attend from as far as Antrim.
The aim of the event was to highlight an old path from Newport to Mulranny, called the Rocky Way, it was used in the olden days by locals, travellers, farmers, and herders.
The event itself started in the heart of Newport town and after a tranquil opening where the route took in a lap of the Quay, and a short section of the Great Western Greenway, the action started once the cyclists hit the Rocky Way path, the long incline up towards Mass rock broke the peloton into pieces.
All the talk beforehand was about bike choice, any off-road bike would get them around the route but some participants went to great lengths to make their machine race ready by selecting their preferred wheel and tyre choice, others stripped their mountain bikes down and shed as much weight from their machines to suit the route. One participant even used a racer with wider tyres and still got around.
Even though the event was technically not a race, organisers created timed sectors so participants could compare times by using the Strava app, their phones and GPS device.
In the 60k distance David Gibson from Portrush set a blistering pace breaking all the records for the sectors coming home first by a country mile. Last year's winner Trevor Costello from Islandeady was second with Gary Donohue, Bikeworx Kildare finishing in third. In the female section Sinead Parsons (Islandeady ) took the plaudits from Eve Daly (Galway Bay ) with Lesleyann Wylie (Wicklow ) in third.
In the 40k male section, Colm Staunton (Westport Covey Wheelers ) was the top finisher with Anthony Murray (Westport Bike Shop ) in second and third place went to Roger Ryan (Fermanagh ).
In the women’s event Mary Mulchrone (Westport Covey Wheelers ) just got the better of Eimear Flannery (Western Lakes CC ) with Martsia Cwiertnia (Galway ) in third spot.
