The first Fixx race was held in Grange Castle on a flat, fast and super dry course. It isn't a course that suits me and I'm only building form, so to get 5th after a hard battle right to the line for 3rd was a great start to the season. Results: Here
Next up was the second round of the Ulster CX league. It was held in Lady Dixon park on the 11th of October. I have a Love/Hate relationship with this course and turning up with a perished semi slick was never going to work. I had a decent start but already a group was forming off the front, trying to bridge across on a techy section I had an off and was quickly engulfed by the main bunch. I proceeded to fall off a lot more over the next few laps as my determination to make up places made me push too hard. Still a good day out in proper cylocross conditions. Results: here
The next event was the PunchesCross race run by NDCX. It was run in Punchestown race course with lots of fun quirky features. Overall the course did not suit me, however the last 500 metres did, so if it came down to a sprint I felt I could make it work. The race went well. I was riding with Anthony "Zippy" Doyle and my team-mate Sean for the first few laps until Robin came through and we never saw him again. In the end it came down to a sprint and I took a slightly different line and surprised the others and got a gap, Sean closed it near the line but I held out for second.
The following weekend I went to Derby in the UK for the second round of the National Trophy races. I had bought a new set of carbon tubular wheels and my dad picked them up Saturday night. I rode one lap practice on Sunday fine and done my warm-up no problems. 1:30 race start, 1 lap fine, 2 laps, nope. I made it one and a half laps then my chain went into the spokes just as I stood on the gears so it was well jammed in. I lost a lot of time and never got back within sniffing distance of the top 10. Result: here
Moving on, it was back to Ireland for the PI cyclocross race in Mallow town park. It was an excellent course, excellently run and a good turn-out for a first event especially in the kids races(the most important ones) I won the A race after a solo ride which was good training for the following weekend. Results: here
The next race was the third round of the British National Trophy series. It was held in Durham on a cricket grounds. I traveled over with Sean O Tuathail and his mechanic Gareth. We had entered the local North East league race on the Saturday as a bit of warm-up/practice for Sunday. I won my race and Sean was 11th. Sunday came and I was nervous as to how I would ride, my last experience not giving much hope yet I had had a good race on Saturday. The start was the usual affair of elbows out and bottlenecks, I managed to move up into the top 10 by running around one of the bottlenecks. I rode well for the rest of the race riding slightly faster in the corners than the guy in front and losing out slightly on the flat straights. Mistakenly thinking I had another lap I swapped bikes on the last lap and in a sprint to the line snapped the rear mech. I ended up 9th which was a brilliant improvement on Derby but I felt like I could have rode better and more tactically and gotten two or three places higher.
And the race to bring you up to date. The third round of the Fixx Supercross cup. This was held on the 15th of November in Tymon Park, Tallaght. This course is defined by a stream the first half of the course is fast, flat and suits the road/power rider, the only part that suits me is the boards where I can save a bit of energy in the approach and the exit as I hop the boards. But once we go over the bridge its my kind of course. There are sweeping off-camber turns, a spiral of awesomeness, a steep drop and some techy woods section. As cyclocross gains in popularity the starts become more important, I got an alright start, not great but I wasn't engulfed either. I held onto 10th or thereabouts for most of the first lap until the spiral of awesomeness where I rode right up to third place behind Robin and Squeak who had put in an early attack. After another lap we were joined by Glenn Kinning who then put in an attack of his own with 4 laps to go, Robin chased leaving me and Squeak alone. The next lap squeak had to pull into the pits leaving me alone chasing Glenn and Robin. With two laps to go I passed Glenn who had broken his hanger and was running for the pits leaving me in second with squeak chasing hard. On the last lap me and Squeak were together until he put in an attack and got a gap, he held it for half a lap to claim second, I came home 3rd. Results:here
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