The winners in the Cycling Ireland monthly awards for July have been announced. The recipients are Jacob Dickson (male rider of the month), Niamh McKiverigan (female rider of the month) and Cathal Dillane (volunteer of the month).
The
winner of club of the month is Galway Bay Cycling Club.
The
winners were nominated by Cycling Ireland members, with a selection
panel voting to decide the winner’s of each category.
The winner of the female rider of the month is Niamh McKiverigan (Scott Eurocycles.com)
Niamh was nominated as a result of her win at the elite Irish National Cross-Country (XCO) Championships during July. Niamh has also won numerous other titles during the season including the Irish NPS Series, Ulster Series and Ulster Championships.
"Thank you very much. My season couldn't have went any better from start to finish it went the way I wanted it to go. Winning the elite Irish title meant a lot and I was over the moon to be able to take the top step it just shows hard work pays off in the long run".
The male rider of the month is Jacob Dickson (Rostrevor Mountain Bike Club)
Jacob has been selected as he won the Irish National Downhill Championships during July. The event was hosted by Rostrevor MTB Club at Kilbroney Forest Park. He has also been racing internationally this year in the likes of Italy and Slovenia.
The club had a busy month during July hosting two high profile events. First up on the 11th of July the club hosted the 2019 Cycling Ireland National Criterium Championships at Pallas Karting Track. Later in the month the club hosted the first ever Galway Classic event.
Cathal
was selected as the winner for July as he was the event promoter for
the Galway Classic event. This was the first holding of the event and
received excellent feedback from participants due to the unique format.
"We in Galway Bay CC were delighted to have the backing from CI to run such a unique and exciting road race. I’m a huge fan of the classics and I wanted to make a classics style road race available to riders in Ireland. We put on a challenging parcours to test the riders grit and determination, unlike any other race in Ireland, centered around the bog roads in east Galway. We had 11 ‘sectors’ in total covering approximately 25kms of the 120k road race and the surfaces were a mix of gravel, dirt tracks, and even some grass thrown in! It turned to be one of those truly epic races you never forget as a rider where even finishing the race was an achievement. I must thank the riders who took on the challenge in our inaugural running of the “Hell of the West”.
As you can imagine putting on an event like this was a huge undertaking and would not have been possible without the commitment and backing of our Galway Bay CC club members and indeed support from other local clubs. I’d especially like to thank Mick Ruane, Grant Fay, and Karl Powderly who worked tirelessly with me on preparing this event over the last year. On race day we had over 100 people involved who all stepped up and made this happen - its the spirit of generosity shown by volunteers who say “I’ll help” that make this kind of race possible.
I’m delighted to say that the Galway Classic will be back next year and hopefully for many years to come as a regular feature of the Irish racing calendar. Classics racing is here to stay!"