By Tommy Campbell, Irish Independent, Evening Herald, Sunday Independent
Roger Aiken, the current Irish Cyclo-cross champion, turns his attention to this discipline on Sunday. Roger was certainly a star on the road this season. He put time and effort into the road season and based himself at the Kelly Academy in Belgium for much of the year. Instead of going down under with a team to compete in the Jayco Herald Sun Tour, Roger will be in Lurgan where hopefully the weather will be fine, but temperatures will be down. Robin Seymour will unfortunately be away when the Lurgan race takes place.
The first cyclo-cross of the season promoted by Apollo CT will be held at Lurgan Park, Lurgan on Sunday, October 9. Underage racing starts at 12 noon with the main event at 1 pm. Changing and sign on are at the Waves Leisure Centre, Lurgan from 11 am.
Cyclo cross is booming in Ireland at the moment and this season looks set to continue. After a meeting by the 'cyclo-cross committee' including Andy Laythe Geoff and Robin Seymour, Robbie Lamont, it has been decided to try and do a way with the handicap style of racing. With races attracting up to 60 or 70 riders last season, it was getting much harder to sort the handicap out. Therefore it was suggested to run it the same way as in England, where there is an open race and prizes for each category: senior, vets, ladies, juniors, and possibly an MTB prize and a Cat. 3 prize.
