Aiken emerges victorious in difficult conditions to take cyclo-cross opener

Leader Roger Aiken negotiates flooding on the Lurgan course

Former FBD Ras stage winner and road and off-road international, Roger Aiken (Banbridge CC) got his cyclo cross season off to a good start in Lurgan today, taking the opening round of the Ulster Cyclo Cross Series.

The Armagh rider beat Ryan Sherlock (SportActive) into second place, with Aiken’s Banbridge team mate Matt Adair taking third in a very wet and muddy Lurgan Park.

It was an impressive ride by Adair in light of the fact that he is still a junior. He clearly benefited today from his ride last weekend in the British MTB Series, where he took third in the junior event in Plymouth.

Sherlock also travelled to the UK for the elite men’s race last Sunday, where he finished 9^th.

However, Aiken won the opening stage of the FBD Ras in 2005 and was national cyclo cross champion in 2005 and 2008, and was today simply too strong for the rest of the field.

He was one of five riders to emerge well clear of the rest after the opening lap. While Sherlock and Adair stayed with him for a period, by the halfway point Aiken began pulling away and from that point the race between the others was for second place.

The leading riders overcame some horrendous conditions in Lurgan Park, with the heavy rain of the past few days and a number of warm-up races before the main event turning the course into something of a mud bath.

Despite the conditions, race organisers Apollo CC managed to attract a high turn out for all of its events today; from Under 8s to elite.

Today’s fixture will be followed by ten further events, both in the North and the Republic, until December 3^rd as part of the Ulster Cross Cup and the Dublin-based Super Cross Cup.

(Full report and results from all of today’s Lurgan Park races when we get full details)

Ulster Cyclo-Cross Series