NPS Rnd 3 Lady Dixion (Belfast)

More Grass, Shlomp, Tyre rubbing, Close racing and Great Craic at NPS round 3

This weekend was the third round of the XC NPS series.  After wining the previous two rounds I was heading into this hoping for another victory.  Last year I hated this course, flat, grass, and dry.  It was in my mind a cyclocross course on mountain bikes.  Nonetheless I was still looking forward to some racing before my exams start.
  

Boy did I get a shock on Sunday when I arrived and rode a practice lap.  It was far from the flat, easy and fast paced race it was last year.  Instead it was shlompy, with less grass and lots of short punchy kickers and off-camber turns.

Our race started at twelve and I got a great start leading the pack from the off.  My closest rival, Cameron was also a man on a mission as he was right on my wheel from the first woodland section.  I tried a couple of times to pull away, but he stuck on me like glue even passing me going up one of the kickers where I tried to pedal as he ran past.  I stuck on his wheel, then watching to see if I could pass him back anywhere, going up another one of the kickers I attacked and led back around to the start.

Going into our final lap I knew I would need to break from Cameron.  I put everything into one last attack half way through the second lap and pulled 20 seconds by riding the technical off-camber section, then also riding up one of the steep kicker that was taken out of the later S1/S2/S3 race.  I gave it everything and finished with 35 seconds to spare.

Loved the course, big improvement on last year.  Loved the shlomp and loved the race.  Close competition and can't wait for my next race.   Results here

Big thanks to XMTB for all the work that went into the race, thanks to DLCo and Scott for their continuing support and thanks to Gareth Gibbons for the photos.

Gravity Enduro Rnd 2(Ticknock)

This weekend was the second round of the Irish Gravity Enduro series and I was really looking forward to it and hopefully I could get in five clean runs.

Practice was on Saturday and because I don't go to Ticknock that often I knew this would be important.  I had a lovely, perfect plan as to how my day was going to go... and then I got two punctures on stage one and another on stage two.  So I knotted the punctured tube and took the road back to the lads in Bike Addiction to get another tube and canister.  With my plan left back up at stage one with my puncture, I rode out the other three stages and was feeling good for race day.

Sunday(Race day)

After my 4th place in Ballinastoe I am now a seeded rider and so I can head off right after the pros with the top 50 riders.  I headed off with Scott Wallace, Killian Callaghan and Conor Lavelle to the top of stage one. 

Stage 1

Stage one went well for me and I felt fast and smooth, I made no mistakes and hit all the lines I had planned, and I didn't puncture so that was my race off to a great start.  I finished 4th in my category on this stage.

Stage 2

I had a slow start on this stage due to a lonely looking tree needing a hug but the rest of the stage went well and I wasn't too far off the pace, again I finished 4th in my category on this stage.

Stage 3

Stage three was a stage I was really looking forward to as it was a really fast, flowey trail.  Unfortunately this stage was bad from the second corner where I clipped my pedal nearly going over the bars, then further down I lost the front wheel a couple of times where it washed out in all the dust.  I finished 5th in my category here and was eager to try and make up lost time on stage 4 and 5.

Stage 4

This was the shortest and steepest stage of the day, and so one mistake would cost a lot of time as there was nowhere to make it back up.  I had a good start but carried too much speed into one of the first corners and hit a rock hidden in the grass, this fired me over the bars and got me a face full of dust.  I slowed down a small bit for the rest of the forest section, but once out into the open section, it was hard on the pedals to try and make up time from my off.  Again I finished 5th on this stage.

Stage 5

 After a long grueling climb back up to the top of the mountain it was a relief to only have one stage left and so after a quick drink of coke from the lads at Last Lap I set off.  After a fairly inconsistent day this stage went a lot better for me and I kept it smooth and fast to finish 4th in my category. 

Delighted to take 4th place behind some very quick lads and 25th overall, loved the weekend, loved the trails and loved the Genius which was flawless as usual.  Thanks to all the organizers and photographers especially Adrian Van der Lee and Keith Wallace for the photos. Results here

Now its back again to XC with NPS round 3 Lady Dixion coming up this weekend. 

  

XC NPS round 2(Ticknock forest)

What a fun filled day of racing, rocks, roots, rain, pain, crashes, dabs and two wheeled drifts. Oh and I won too.

Saturday was the second round of the Irish XC NPS(National Points Series). The ran it on Saturday as the Giro was also on this weekend and was coming to Dublin on Sunday.  Mountainbike Association of Dubin(MAD) were in charge of the race and what a brilliant job they did.

The course was completely different from last year and even after one practice lap I knew this race would suit me, lots of singletrack, lots of technical climbing and descending and only one big tarmac climb.  And so after a quick bit of food I lined up with the other U16 riders.  Next 30 seconds.... 10..... Go, out of the saddle sprinting up the fire-road as the course was straight into a technical rooty cimb where I was confident of pulling a bit of a lead before the tarmac  climb.  After this climb it was up another technical climb through slippy, boggy grass, then it was up again along the man-made trail centre to the top of the mountain where you got a big cheer from one of the marshals before turning back down and over a lttle gap jump and then weaving your way back down the mountains over roots, rocks and around trees, then you were shot back out onto the tarmac climb and it was a quick sprint back to the singletrack and around to start/finish line.  I was 2 and a half minutes up after lap 1.

Lap 2 was much the same except there was a couple of slightly out of control two wheel drifting moments including one where I decided to shoulder a tree, which sent me spinning over the bars and onto my back in the middle of the trail, after that I eased it off a bit as I knew I could as I had a good lead on the rest of the field. I finished in 40:33.

Thanks and well done to MAD Mtb for the brilliant race and course (First time I've ever had arm pump in an XC race). Provisional results here

Also thanks again to Eurocycles for providing the Scale (faultless as usual), like me it loves this kind of racing, also to Expert Cycles for their usual excellent pre-race set-up and to Paddy Daly and Donnybrook Landscape Company for their continuing support.  See you all in Lady Dixion or at the Gravity Enduro.