Aiken fine tunes National Champs form with win in muddy Dungannon; Kinning second

Roger Aiken on his way to yet another win today, this time in Dungannon (Photo: The Belgian Project)

The Christmas and New Year festive period has clearly done nothing to dent the mint condition of Roger Aiken, with the Banbridge CC man coming home victorious in the Ulster Cyclocross New Year Race at Windmill Wood, Dungannon.

The event was run in muddy conditions today, Sunday, but acted as a valuable opportunity for riders to fine tune their form before the National Cyclocross Championships near Dundalk, Co Louth, next weekend.

The race was promoted by Island Wheelers and went off very successfully despite it being the club’s first time to hold a cyclocross event.

Aiken’s victory today over second placed Glenn Kinning (Audi East Antrim CC) and Sean O'Tuathail (Bray Wheelers) in third, means he has been unbeaten to date in the 2012-2013 cyclocross season.

He won all of the events in the Ulster Cyclocross Series, which ended before Christmas, and looked a comfortable winner in muddy conditions today following heavy rainfall in the hours before the race.

Similarly, on the Dublin scene Robin Seymour (Team WORC) won every round of the Fixx Coffeehouse Supercross Cup, before winning the additional race on the calendar last month; Crossmarnock in Portmarnock, north Dublin.

With both clearly in top form and unbeaten this season, next weekend’s championship race promises to be a great showdown. Riders like O'Tuathail, Kinning, Tim O’Regan (DID Dunboyne) and Matt Adair (Banbridge) will also be looking to press that leading duo to at very least take a bronze medal on the day.

See full results from all of today’s action in Dungannon below these photos.