Well that was a really muddy weekend of racing in Djouce Woods for the Irish National Champs! After a Summer of beautiful dry and dusty trails, the heaven's decided to open up on Friday night and turned the trails into hardcore, rooty, mudfest! I thought racing in the Alps was tough.....well some parts of the six stages were up there with the most challenging conditions I've raced in to date. Here's how it went..... I had a fairly hectic week leading up to the Champs and I didn't have exactly the best race preparation. Arriving home from France the Wednesday evening, after travelling for three days, I was straight back to work the next day and to top it off, began moving house! This gave me two days in Galway before having to drive back to Dublin Friday evening. I'd had such an amazing time racing and travelling in Europe over the past six weeks but both my body and bike needed a good week to rest so I really didn't feel like I was 'match fit' for this important race. My bike, a Kona Process 153 DL, had served me so well over the summer enabling me to race four weekends in a row and a further two weeks biking in Finale Ligure and Sauze D'Oulx. I had a few really minor issues with my gears and rear hub but that was it and considering the amount of riding I did this was impressive. However, in the final week, the front hub bearings had had enough and packed it in. Stuck for a front wheel as I couldn't source the cone and bearings in time, fellow Connemara Mtb club-mate Andrew Taylor lent me his rotor which was kindly put onto a wheel that Jamie from Bespoke Cycles in Bray Co.Wicklow kindly let me borrow, enabling me to race at the weekend. Working out of hours on Friday evening, I can't thank Jamie and the guys at Bespoke Cycles enough for their help. They also gave me a great deal on a set of Renthal carbon fibre handlebars which they swore would help me to go faster at the weekend : ) Saturday was practice day, my bike was ready to go and was looking pretty damn smart with the Renthals on : ) The rain on was relentless all day and heavy. Djouce, a forest full of off-camber exposed roots, was made ten times more technical from the rain, but this didn't turn off the 300 odd riders who got up early on Sunday morning to race. I was riding really well all day, recording all stages on my HEDCamz which I would watch that evening to help me remember them. I was having some trouble shifting gears but as we finished late in the day it was too late to bring it to race mechanics, BikeAddiction.ie. So after a long day on the bike with my teammates Joseph Clancy and Cillian Thomas, it was an evening of washing and drying my seriously soggy muddy clothes and then some footage geeking!
Overall Result: 5th With a 2nd place on stage four and a 3rd on stage two this was some consolation for my disastrous stage 5! . It really showed me how much I need to be riding the Dublin and Wicklow mountains more often to get a feel for the trails and those nasty roots! Onwards and upwards : ) Well done to my teamates Shona D'Arcy, Joseph Clancy, Cillian Thomas on their results especially to Leah Maunsell who took the win! And to Connemara mtb clubmates Colin Keegan, Eoghan O'Donahoe and young newcomer Danny Birchard who did so well in his first race. A big thanks to Niall Davis and the Biking.ie crew for another fantastic event, these guys really know how to run a professional race and have the respect of every biker in Ireland. Everyone is looking forward to the final round in Carrick on the 6th and 7th of September. Let's not forget the photographers who work so hard to take our photo's in these conditions, Bart & Magda from CycleActionPhotography, Keith Wallace, Adrian Van Der Lee and many others. A huge thank you to Jamie Popham at Bespokecycles.ie. Unbelievable customer service and such friendly guys, a great bike shop in Bray, Co. Wicklow. I also can't thank Dave O'Toole from BikeAddiction.ie enough for spending his valuable time on Sunday morning getting my bike sorted for me. I really couldn't have raced without him. Top professional and friendly service as always : ) And of course, thank you to all my sponsors for their support: Konabikes, MBW, HEDcamz, GRranna, Allmountainstyle And of course, thank you to all my sponsors for their support: Konabikes, MBW, HEDcamz, GRranna, Allmountainstyle Next race.......Bluegrass International Tour, Dublin 16th August Comments are closed.
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