Koksijde Cyclocross World Cup

This weekend I was in Belgium for the infamous Koksijde World Cup, I flew out Friday morning to Brussels and spent Friday in Ghent watching the 6 day track cycling event.  Combining a 166 meter track with 24 riders (including many world tour riders and ex World champs) is something that everyone should see.  I would have loved to see the remaining two days but I was here for some racing of my own.

We arrived at the track around 3 p.m. so I only had less than an hour to practice as the gates to the military base where the race was being held were being shut at 4.  The first lap was.... interesting, I think I rode 100 meters of sand out of the whole lap.  Every time I hit a sandy section I fell off.  It is impossible to describe in words what sand riding feels like.   Imagine trying to pedal uphill in your biggest gear while the hill keeps getting steeper and steeper, also the surface keeps changing, not even each lap but each minute and there's only one safe-ish route up,  and to stay on this route you have to be loose on the bike while making sure none of you movement gets transferred to the steering, somewhere in all this you also have to find traction.

After about 45 minutes of practice I still wasn't confident in the sand, it was a 50/50 chance if I could make it through the section, but I had to leave and hope everyone else was also struggling.  Off to the town hall then for sign-on, managers meeting and dinner then back to the hotel for an early night.

  
Sunday was an early start and a quick breakfast as we were staying in Brugge, so had to drive about an hour  to the track.  Despite all the added security and marshals we still ended up in V.I.P. parking close to the track so that suited us.  There was no pressure for results so I wasn't as nervous as I normally am.  I got a good warm-up and lined up with all the other juniors in the holding pen.  Because of UCI points and rankings I wasn't gridded last which was a welcome change. We got a 3 minute warning, one minute warning, then lights, green light and all hell broke loose.  I was completely unprepared for the spray off the wet tarmac, the crunch of gears and the sheer speed of the start.  We reached the end of the straight and the speed turned into 1,000 screeching babies as everyone grabbed a handful of brake.

The speed didn't slow at all for the first lap, I made up some places in one running section and a few more in the sandy descent, shortly after I rolled my rear tub going round a relatively easy corner.  That was my race over and watching everyone ride away from you as you pick up the bike and start running is the most disappointing thing that has ever happened to me.  I ran for over a kilometer to the pits where I jumped on my spare bike and set off in an already lost battle to try and regain some time.  I struggled round for another 3 laps before being pulled with one lap to go.  On my own over the course of the race I got better at riding the sand, even though the spare bike had mud tires that kept catching the sand and trying to throw me over the front of the bike.  I came to the race looking for an experience and I can't say I didn't get that, so overall a disappointing but enjoyable trip.  Sand is definitely now one of my favorite riding conditions.

Huge thanks to all involved in this trip, my pit crew for looking after me all weekend, David Vaughan for lending me his file tread tyres which made the sand and speed easier to deal with, Daniel Brickenden for the loan of his bike as a spare and to the team and all the sponsors for the ongoing support.  Check out all the action here.

Update Part 2 (CX edition)

So Cyclocross season is well and truly underway. My prayers for mud have been answered and so its time to do another update.  So far I have competed in two rounds of the Fixx Supercross cup, one round of the North Dublin CX league, one Ulster CX race, two British National Trophy rounds, one north east England round and the Pi cyclocross race held in Mallow.


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

The blog lives!!!

Ok, I'm back, well I never left, but when I last wrote here it was the end of the 2014 mountain bike season. Well its been over a year, so a big update needed but i'll keep it brief.

I spent the winter of 2014/2015 racing Cyclocross.  It was my second season racing it but unlike other years it was pretty much the only training I did all winter, very little road and mtb.  I raced a full season of the Fixx Supercross Cup and a couple of Ulster races. The highlight was going to the Milton Keynes round of the world cup and experiencing a world level course and race.  It was a revelation.  It was the event that drove home the fact that cyclocross was my favorite discipline.  And to top it off I got 13th in my first year as a junior(U18)

Milton Keynes. Happier than a pig in shit!

2015 was a very dull season results wise but not by any other measure.  I broke my left collarbone racing my first stage race, the Gorey three day.  It was a great 3 days until the last 3 km of the last day where I learnt that tarmac hurts a LOT.  This was eight weeks before my first entry into a round of the Enduro World Series which was held 10 minutes down the road from me in Carrick, Glenealy.  To speed up my recovery I got my collarbone plated and was back riding my road bike in two weeks.  The race couldn't have went better considering my training(lack of) and injury and I came home in 11th place.  The next weekend I was in Scotland for the next round of the Enduro World Series where I came home 12th place.

I wasn't smiling afterwards

Yes! Dust in Ireland.....

Then it was back to Ireland for some Cross Country races.  I got second in the second round of the National Points Series on my home track.  Then onto the National Championships.  Biggest disappointment of my career so far, I came down hard on Saturdays practice session and broke my right wrist, I tried to race but had to pull out within a lap.

2nd place NPS Rnd 2

I ended my 2015 mountain bike season and celebrated my 17th birthday with a 13th place in the final round of the Enduro World Series in Italy.

Right now that you're all up to speed, the real season can begin.  I'm hugely excited to announce that i'll be working with Bike Pure founder and cyclocross coach Andy Layhe for the 2015/2016 cyclocross season.  I will be competing in the Fixx series, the Ulster series and hopefully all the British National trophy rounds (excluding the first as its over) and anything else I can fit in.

The more of this the better

I'll do another update soon telling you about my season so far.  I'll be keeping the blogs concise and doing regular updates from now on so please do keep checking in.  Also check out the team facebook page for shorter again and more regular updates on me and the rest of the team HERE!

Gravity Enduro Rnd 4

This weekend was the final round of the 2014 Gravity Enduro season.  Niall and his dream team had put in a huge effot to make the last round special with one complete new stage and new sections on old favoutires.

Saturday was spent scoping lines with Dan Wolfe, Gavin O Connell and John Mason. The trails were fast, rocky and dusty and I was looking forward to Sunday.

I got off early on Sunday and blitzed my way down and up stage 1 to get the third fastest time overall.

Thanks Keith for the photo

 Stage 2 is one of Carrick's best stages and I was delighted to only be 2 seconds off the win here and to get 4th fastest time overall.

It was looking like it was going to be my best result of the season until stage 3. I got 11th overall on this stage but suffered a blow to the head somewhere on the trail and got concussion so I have no memories of stage 3. Scott and Leah came down the stage behind me and found me disorientated at the bottom and took me up to the paramedic who stopped my race and sent me to the ambulance.

Thanks Adrian Van der lee

Disappointing not to finish the race but at least I got to see the entire world cup.

I definitely gave it 100% all year and thanks to everyone who has helped me this season, especially Paddy Daly and Scott bikes for supplying everything I needed to race this season. Not ideal to dnf two races but that's all my bad luck done for Enduro now hopefully. I've learned a lot and am excited to make a return in 2015 bigger and better.  

Until next year... check me out at 30 seconds and a minute  Here

Djouce Gravity Enduro National Champs

Well stoked to say that I am National Gravity Enduro Champion after a mad days racing through the shlomp, roots, ruts, rocks and chutes and the odd sprint.

The weekend started off with a fresh set of tyres from the lads in Expert cycles, then it was up to Djouce Friday evening to get a couple of stages ridden so I could spend less time out Saturday, but the Gods of Enduro had other plans and opened the heavens above Djouce Friday evening to turn all the lovely dust to greasy shlomp and to show all those snakes who's boss.  Saturday, the rain held off until about 2 o'clock, then it was down for the evening but I had all my mud lines sorted after spending the day out with Luke Courtney so I headed home to get a good rest and listen to the rain as it lashed down outside.

I woke early on Sunday, and the rain was still falling so I knew it was going to be a case of staying upright and clean.  I got off at ten eager to get out as the weather looked unsettled and I wanted to get down the stages before they got too cut up. 

Stage One

This stage had a really greasy start before dropping across the fireroad onto a sweet flowing trail before crossing another fireroad onto Phantom which was this steep flowy trail, then a quick sprint up a fireroad and dropping into a really fast rooty section to the finish.  I got all my lines and felt like I had gone as fast as I could.  I got 1st in my category and 4th overall on this stage.

Stage two

This stage was steep and greasy from the off, leading to a short slippy kicker and then it went down again swooping down around some trees, a quick flat pedal and more swooping, cross a fireroad, pedal, cross another fireroad, slide through some muck, another fireroad and then through a couple of bus stops and a quick stomp on the pedals and finish.  I had a couple of dabs on this stage and one high line to low line to an inconveniently placed tree.  I finished 3rd on this stage and 15th overall.

Stage three

This stage was the pedalliest of the day starting down some really thick gloppy mud that was a nightmare to pedal over, then down over a fireroad and a quick bunnyhop over a tree and onto a rooty nightmare.  Lots of hopping and hoping, then a quick uphill sprint and back down a quick short section drop onto a fireroad and another long uphill sprint, back down and around a corner and boom the front wheel decided to get lost in some ferns.  I got back up quickly and put the reverb up to save some energy and back down it went as it had twisted in my fall, so it was pedal like a loon to get to the bottom where I could fix it.  Despite my crash and a what felt like a horribly slow start I won this stage and was 7th overall.

Stage four

This stage was a relentless trail of roots, a quick sprint to start, then some roots, some mud, a couple of walls, more mud and down and across a fireroad and more roots then it got smoother and pedallier along the river, down and across it and back up the other side to the rootiest trail in the world and they are all off-camber, tried a couple of high lines but I kept slipping down to the low lines so just tried to stay smooth to the bottom.  I won this stage and was 6th overall.

Stage five

This stage was the longest and steepest and muddiest of the day but also the most fun.  It started with a big open muddy rooty section with loads of lines before going down into the trees, this bit was ridiculous with no control over brakes, steering or grip, then it was a quick little sprint before dropping into the grand canyon of ruts, I stayed in the rut for a short while before hopping up onto the left and stayed clear of it the rest of the way down then it was a flat straight to the finish.  I won this stage by 30 seconds and was 5th overall.

Stage six   

This was a quick minute sprint down the fireroad to the finish.  I was in too stiff a gear to make it around the last chicane as fast as I would have liked but I was still fastest in my category and 7th overall.

Absolutely Stoked to win the Junior Category by over a minute and to get a National Championship this year.  Even better was to come 5th Overall out of 300 odd riders and to be mixing it up with the fast lads at the top who have competed internationally, and still two more years in Junior.

Thanks to all the photographers who turned up.

 full results here 

Thanks to everybody who has helped me to this win, from Paddy Daly and DLCo/Scott for the bike to Expert cycles for keeping it running smooth. from my coach Mark for getting me fit to Honey stinger for fueling the body. and everyone else who contributed to help me this season.      

Adrian Van der Lee photos

Action pictures Ireland photos 

Cycle Action photography photos

Keith Wallace photos

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.