Not the week I had planned

Ok so I'm writing off the 3rd round of  the Gravity Enduro series in Ballyhoura as a learning experience. Went down Saturday, practiced hard, felt great, went out again Sunday and raced, felt pinned on 4 stages and got a puncture on stage 5 but rode down the stage anyway destroying my rear rim in the process...... only to be told that my timing chip wasn't turned on.

If in doubt Ride it out!

Next up the XC Nationals in Killarney.  We travelled down on the Saturday morning and I got in one easy practice lap to get to know the course... It was greasy, fast and mainly flat with a couple of leg sapping steep kickers and not as technical as I would have liked.  Around 4 o'clock I got in another practice lap with my team mate Sean and David Montgomery.  The traffic in Killarney was terrible, it took us 20 minutes to drive 3 miles to the place we were staying.

I arrived early on Sunday and went out on a short practice loop, the course was slippier after the rain during the night but was drying out fast.

Words can't even describe what I was feeling on the start line but nervous definitely doesn't even come close.
The start was a mad battle of elbows as everyone tried to get the inside line into the first corner, I was second and quickly got to first and as we reached the first small hill in the field I started to pace myself, but Cameron McIntyre had other plans bursting off up the hill.  I chased him down and followed him for most of the first lap as we passed the elite women and pulled on the other U16 riders.

 I passed Cameron back going up one of the steep kickers but he passed me back on the next one.  On the second lap I made an early pass hoping to pull a lead but somewhere on the course I had bent a couple of teeth on my big chain-ring and it slipped, allowing Cameron to pass me and pull 20 seconds.  I pushed hard chasing him down but fell again on one of the rooty descents bending my rear derailleur.  I caught Cameron with half a lap to go where he also fell allowing me to regain the lead but Cameron was right on my wheel again having recovered from his fall.  It was a tough race but in the end it came down to a sprint finish where Cameron bet me by half a second.  Not the result I was after but winning 6/7 races is still good.  Unfortunately on the biggest day of the year I had problems but it can't be perfect every race.

full results here

Thanks to everyone who has helped me this season in XC. thanks to Paddy Daly for including me on his dream team, to Scott Ireland for providing the awesome Scott Scale, to Alfie and Robin for looking after the bike all season which is no easy task as it takes lots and lots of abuse, to Continental for providing tyres, to Honey Stinger for keeping me fueled during the races and to all the photographers whose amazing photography can be seen in all my blogs and to my dad for driving me all over the country.

But the season ain't over next up is the Gravity Enduro Nationals then off to the UK to race the last round of their XC series, check back soon to see how I get on.

         

NPS Round Up

OK so first off sorry for not updating this sooner, been kind of busy, State Exams, Work, Training, its a hard life.
First one up is Round 4 in Ballyhoura.  This was in the middle of my junior cert but sure its an N.P.S. how could you miss one, so I travelled down early Sunday morning.  Unfortunately the turnout was poor which was a shame because Team Ballyhoura had put together a brilliant course with a great mix of technical and flowey, single track.  My race started as usual at twelve and with my main competitor not attending I won by a good margin.  I had no time to watch the Senior Races as I was under orders to get home and get some study done but it was well worth the trip.

Next was round five in Garvagh.  This course did not suit me as well as some of the others because it had long fireroads that required long power outputs rather than short, sharp bursts but I was still looking forward to it as the course was dusty and the sun was shining.  We travelled on Saturday and I got in two practice laps, one with Killarney CC and another with my old training mate Paddy Michel.  Sunday was even warmer than Saturday and after our race briefing from Martin Grimley we set off.  I was third into the single track and quickly moved up to second place to start catching Cameron, once I did it was a game of cat and mouse the rest of the race and in the end it came down to a sprint finish.  It was close and in the end there was only 200ths of a second in it, but a wins a win and now with five wins out of five races I was now looking forward to round 6 and hopefully the 6th win.

The last round was in Bellurgan Park which is a private estate in Co. Louth.  The sun had been shining all week and because of this the bike was treated to some lovely new Continental race-kings.  We arrived early for my little brother who was racing at 10.30 while I went for a practice lap.  The course was dry and dusty with a long slog to the top of the hill,  then loads of sweet flowing singletrack with some rock gardens thrown in.  There was a good turnout of ten competitiors for my race which started at twelve.  I got a good start and was second into the first corner and at the top of the first hill was still in sight of 1st place.  I caught Cameron on the next technical section and followed him all the way  back to the start where I passed him before we entered the wood again.  He made one attempt to pass me back but I held him off, once we started going down he stuck on my wheel like glue until he took a slower line through one of the technical bits.  I put in a big burst to stay ahead and won the race with 40 seconds to spare.

So after six great rounds the N.P.S. series is over and what a great year it was.  The courses were great and the events were very well run, Congratulations to Max Power and all the organizers and people involved in the running of the events.
Thanks to all my sponsors for the support through out the year and to Paddy Daly for bringing them all together into the best team around.
Donnybrook Landscape Co, Scott Bikes, Continental Tyres, Expert Cycles, Ethos Engineering, Honey Stinger and my dad the driver.  

Now its back to the big bouncy bike for the third Gravity Enduro round in Ballyhoura. and then the XC nationals in Killarney.