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.