Northern Ireland Outdoors Forum - Hiking, camping and more
Information => Outdoor News and Events => Topic started by: admin on July 03, 2016
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The organisers of a mountain bike race in County Down have said rocks and logs and string or wire has been put across trails due to be used on Sunday.
The items were found by marshals from the First Tracks Enduro Cup race in Kilbroney Park in Rostrevor on Saturday morning.
"It's obviously extremely dangerous for any competitors that come down," race organiser Glyn O'Brien said.
"It just gives a bad vibe really with mountain bikers in the area."
He added: "We're not really sure if this is kids doing this for fun or something a bit more malicious."
Mr O'Brien said the string or wire had been put across the trails at head height.
"Certainly, by the look of it, it has been pre-meditated because it's not the sort of thing that a person carries on them when they're walking in the hills and not something that was lying about," he said.
"So the person has deliberately done this, they have thought about what they've been doing and moved all the big rocks and logs as well and they've taken their time - it wasn't a five-minute job.
"It's extremely scary to think anybody would do that."
Mr O'Brien said that police told him they would patrol the area on Saturday night. He said marshals had cleared away they obstacles and the race would go ahead on Sunday.
SDLP councillor Declan McAteer said he had spoken to local police who confirmed they were investigating the incident.
He condemned those responsible, who he said had endangered lives.
"It's the last thing I'd want to hear of happening. It doesn't do a lot of good for the Rostrevor area," he said.
Mr McAteer said mountain biking had been a growing success for the economy of the area and he was concerned such incidents could jeopardise this
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-36695086