Defending national cyclo-cross champion Roger Aiken has decided not to take part in this year’s contest, due to be held in Lurgan on Sunday.

The Banbridge CC rider beat 15-time champion Robin Seymour last year, but told Irishcycling.com this week that he has done very limited preparation for Sunday’s race. He has now decided not to take part due to his lack of form.

“My form is terrible,” the Banbridge CC rider said on Thursday. “In December I did nothing for the cyclocross season, I had other commitments. I’ve been in Belgium for five days over Christmas and this only highlighted my poor form. I started four races and finished one.”

Aiken’s had originally been planning on riding on Sunday, saying that he was hopeful that Banbridge might win the team prize, but on Friday he told Irishcycling.com he would not now be riding.

His absence sets things up for a likely two-way clash between Seymour and Conor McConvey, a 19 year old mountainbike and road rider who recently signed a deal to ride for the FELT International MTB team this season.

McConvey finished second to Seymour in the Irish mountainbike championships last July and was also an excellent second in the under 23 classification of the UCI mountainbike World Cup race held in Bromont. In December he was a close runner-up in the final round of the Supercross league, finishing just three second behind his 37 year old rival.

Seymour has shown good form of late, though, dominating the Supercross league, and will be motivated to try to take his sixteenth cross country title in Lurgan Park.

As for Aiken, he will not be on the start line, but has plans to try out some track racing this year. “In 2009 there might be another discipline of the sport to think about,” he said. He also said that he will do some road and MTB racing.