Seymour And May Take Wins In 'Epic' Cross-country National Series Round Two
Round Two of the Cross-country National Series (XC National Points Series) proved an 'epic' day for all involved on Sunday, May 19th.
A sun soaked edition of the series took place in what was a record day at the Leadmines, Co. Dublin, as Epic MTB played host.
One of Ireland's leading cross-country courses, with some small improvements from hosting last year, proved testing for even the most experienced riders as some fantastic racing entertained spectators.
The round also broke records as it recorded the most senior women's riders of any NPS Round across three well contested categories.
In the senior 1 race, Caoimhe May dominated the women's race as she led from the opening hill to maintain and pull out a sizable gap on the rest of the field. The podium consisted of national champion May, veteran Ciara MacManus and teenager Faith Robinson.
Erica Grant took home an impressive win in the Senior 2 race while Hazel Murphy took victory in the Senior 3 race.
The Senior 1 Open race was perhaps the race of the day as Robin Seymour, Daniel Brickenden and David Montgomery did battle at the front from lap one. With Brickenden's gap over Seymour and 'Monty' in chase fluctuating with every lap, Seymour turned the screw with a blistering final lap to edge a win over his teammate Brickenden.
PJ Hynes took a long awaited gold medal in the Senior 2 Open race while there were wins for Ben O'Keefe in the junior category as Francis Yates and Alan Dunne were victorious in the Senior 3 and 4 Open races respectively.
In the youth categories, there were some excellent displays across the board, including Curtis McKee (U16 boys), Oscar Moran and Ava Baker (U14), Ben Cunningham and Aoife Campbell (U12), Lewis Bell and Emilia Tyszecka (U10) and Evan McTavish and Rionach Campbell (U8).
Up next, the series returns to Dromore, Co. Down, for the first time in over 15 years as riders look forward to round three on June 2nd.
The full results are available here.
The National Series standings after round two are available here.