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.
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