Club History 2006/2007

The 2006/2007 season saw Robert Donnelly take over as Club Captain with Kevin Harnett and Brendan Doyle acting as Secretary and Junior Treasurer respectively. Anthony Walsh was elected Public Relations Officer, Oisin Boydell Mountain Bike Officer, Robert Higgins Equipment/Web coordinator, and Niall Davis became Development Officer. Maoilíosa Ó Dubhthaigh remained as Club President for another term.

The competitive season got off to a good start with Rory Beirne winning the Senior men’s category in a round of the downhill championship at Cloon Wood. The MTB XC season also started early with the K Capital Cup, a 4 race XC league in various locations in Ireland in which 5 UCD riders took part. Notable results were Cait Elliot achieving 5th place overall in Elite Women and Oisin Boydell in 5th place in Experts. This strong start to the season was maintained throughout the Irish XC National Points Series which consisted of 7 races throughout Ireland. Again a strong UCD team took part across the full range of categories from Sports riders to Elites. Cait Elliot dominated the ladies Elite category, winning most of the rounds and again Oisin Boydell was a strong contender in Experts. Cait won Elites overall and Oisin took 5th place in Experts overall. The final round of the series in Tymon Park in Dublin was notable in that the day before consisted of a team rely event which was a departure from the usual format. Two teams from UCD took part.

The Irish XC Mountainbike National Champs race took part in July in Tollymore Forest Park, Co. Down. Cait faced tough competition from a field of the top Irish women riders and managed to achieve a hugely impressive podium finish with 3rd place. Oisin rode one of his best races of the year and narrowly missed out on a medal by finishing 4th. UCD riders also took part in the Irish XC Marathon National Champs. However, due to course layout problems, this race was stripped of National Championship status. Two UCD teams also took part in the Annacurragh Challenge, a 50km off road biking and running adventure race in Co. Wicklow in August in which Cait Elliot and Nigel Shekleton finished in 2nd place and Oisin Boydell and Paudie Flynn took 8th place. The UCD mountainbike team also competed in many other local races throughout the season including the MAD Dixie Dash, EPIC Thursday night open league races, the Team WORC point to point races and Man-v-Bike, a mountainbiking versus hill running race on Three Rock mountain in April.

The road season began with a very impressive turnout from UCDCC at the Intervarsity Championship in February. 12 riders took part in total; the largest turn out of all Universities competing and the largest number of UCD riders fielded at a single event in a number of years. The racing, organised by Queens University Triathlon Club on the outskirts of Belfast, was split between a time trial in the morning and a road race in the afternoon. In the absence of Club Captain, Robert Donnelly, Kevin Harnett assumed the team captaincy for the event. Scholarship student Louise Moriarty won the ladies time trial and road race, and the overall title. After finishing the ladies race, Louise then continued on to place well in the mens event, completing 2 extra laps! Niamh Stephens and Ingrid Owens also raced on the day, finishing 5th and 6th respectively, ensuring that UCD took the ladies team prize for the first time in its history. An eager but inexperienced men's team took to the road in the mens race with 6 of the riders taking part in their first ever races. 2005/06 Club Rider of the Year, Gavin Haberlin rode a brilliant race against some good category 1 riders, and finished in 7th place. He is only just returning from injury, making this all the more impressive. Ben Curtis also deserves a special mention, finishing 14th overall in his first ever race. The team finished 3rd overall, but failed to pick up the colours prize against Trinity, who put in a very strong performance. At the captains meeting after the race it was agreed that the Universities in Dublin (UCD, DCU and TCD) will jointly host next years race which is set to take place in the Phoenix Park on the 9th of March, 2008.

The UCD ladies racing team built on their early success and went to win numerous races. The highlights were a gold medal at the National Championships for Louise in the Time Trial event, along with a bronze medal in the National Road Racing Championship. She also set a new Irish ladies national 3,000m record for the track. Louise also recorded an international win in the Tielt-Winge GP in Belgium. Niamh Stephens won Round 6 of the Boot Inn Dublin Ladies League and she finished the 9 race series in 3rd place overall. Ingrid Owens, a newcomer to the sport, had a hugely successful first season taking part in many of the Boot Inn races. Her season highlight was finishing in 3rd in the Ladies 6k Scratch race on the national track and subsequently being named ‘best newcomer’ in the Murphy & Gunn International Trophy at the meet.

The men’s road racing team were not so fortunate during the year, with Kevin, Niall, Ben, Gavin and Eoin all suffering injuries which saw them off the bike for a time. Anthony competed in a large number of road races throughout the season while Al and Theo took part in a number of track races at the Sundrive Road facility.
The end of season award winners were as follows: After what was to prove a sensational season for Louise Moriarty, she easily came out on top in the poll for the ‘Club Rider of the Year’ while Cait Elliott deservedly won her first mountainbiking award. It was the first time in the Club’s history that either of those awards were won by lady cyclists. Kevin Harnett received the ‘Special Achievement Award’ for his outstanding administrative work for the Club. In what was a sensational year for the women in the Club, Niamh Stephens fought off a strong challenge from Louise, Cait and Ingrid to retain her Ladies Achievement Award.