2012 Specialized S-Works Epic 29er

Bandwagon... People have been raving about 29ers over the last few year - "just like cheating" they say... Well, we held off for a long time until the geometries were perfected, spare parts common and boy am I glad I have gotten the chance to switch.

Mel and I are racing off-road on nearly identical (size, saddle and color of the grips are the only differences) Epics. Basically, it is the European stock Specialized S-Works Epic 29er fitted out with NoTubes 29er Race Gold Wheels, KCNC bar, stem, rotors, grips and seatpost, Schwalbe Tires (Rocket Ron on the front, Racing Ralph on the rear) and Crank Brothers Egg Beater pedals.

My bike, as a fully race ready size large (with proper tires) tips the scales at 9.8kg - incredible for a 29er full suspension!

Coming from what I believed to already be the best bike out there, the 26er Epic - it has had a lot to live up to. Well, only 2 hours of twisty man-made and natural trails under the tires so far but first impressions are that it is even smoother/faster than the original. Tight switchbacks were a thing that I thought it would falter at, but so far, I couldn't tell the difference between a 26er and this 29er both descending and climbing switchbacks. When you have the bike to speed, it really does roll - like my old 6 inch travel Enduro MTB... I found myself chanting "stay off the brakes, stay off the brakes", amazing what it then floats over. I'll be spending a lot more time on it over the next few weeks.

Garmin 800 and SRAM Brakes

Again, many thanks to our sponsors I mentioned and a big thanks to Specialized and Cycleways - we feel so fortunate to be always using the best equipment available on the road, TT and off-road - THANKS!

S-Works Stumpjumper Hardtail

It has been a long time coming - I had planed on having this bike put together during the summer but things got in the way and it took a while to get all the bits and pieces together. I didn't need it for any races so there was never really a rush to get my butt in gear. The upside, is I have finally built it up the way I want it (apart from one minor thing - but I'll get to that).



It is basically a 2010 Specialized S-Works Stumpjumper hardtail frameset pimped out with some of our sponsors kit. Lots of KCNC bits (some making their first Irish appearance - have a look at the brakes) - NoTubes wheels, the new CrankBrother Eggbeater pedals and Schwalbe tires. A really impressive package and tips the scale at a little over 8kg (I know, saddle and crankset can be lighter)

The new KCNC X-7 brakes are really something to behold - mega mega light (277 grams for the rear, 259 grams for the front INCLUDING rotors and all bolts - wow that's more than 100 grams per wheel lighter than most of it's competition). Braking has been great so far - a very positive feel and another nice feature is that they use Shimano style brake pads - so easy to find when you are stuck.

The rear caliper is simply beautiful - someone had fun with the CNC machine

I run a 2x10 drivetrain. An XT crankset modified to run a 42/28 combo and a 11-36 cassette out back. For most conditions I shouldn't have to leave the big ring (which sits in the middle ring position of the XT triple so gives a great chainline for the whole cassette). The crankset is the only thing I may alter in a while - it does not really befit the rest of the build, but it is what I had easily available.


Crankbrothers newly updated Eggbeater pedals finish out the build.

So, first impressions - it's all about the fork, the stiffness and weight of the bike - the bike just flies - you really want to push hard on it at all times. Sure, it isn't as quick on the descents as a fully, but still remains a lot of fun and is easier to clean and maintain.

So I have both the S-Works Stumpjumper and Epic - if I had to have one, it's easy, it still is the Epic - there just is not a bike like it. The suspension works so well that it is a no brainer to ride around with the extra few hundred grams of weight over the hardtail... But I still really like my new bike.

NPS 6 - Djouce

A report and some photos to follow - boy was that a mudfest! Great fun though.

Photo from here

Another picture from here

My bike after the race (I scraped off most of the muck before I left the carpark)

Racing, racing and more racing...

It has been a long time since my last proper post and I've been doing a lot of racing both in Ireland and abroad recently. I'll briefly go through the races and hopefully get back to normal posting soon.

Irish National Points Series – Round 2 – Balinastoe – May 6th

This was the second time that I was going to be racing in Balinastoe, last year we had a round of the NPS on roughly the same circuit. This time however, they cut out the parts that I didn't like (a fast gravel road descent!!!) and replaced it with a reasonable enough single track descent through a cut down forest. The course itself was actually quiet short (and dry!) and we only had to complete 7 laps. My lap times for the laps were around the 12:30 mark... (3.7km, 160m climb per lap). The race only saw Peter Bugle, James McCluskey and myself take part in the Elites. We all headed off with James putting on the early pressure. Me, my legs didn't really hack the pace and I ended up staying about 40 seconds back on him and Peter for the first two laps. On the second last lap I passed James on a single track section with his bike upside down. Unfortunately, he snapped his dérailleur hanger somewhere on the section. I didn't see Peter again until the finish line.

A view over the course

Mel at the start of her race

A tough climb at the start of the lap

Towards the end of the lap there was two lines, the slow line or the jump :)

Freerange Sports Optics British XC Series Round 2 UCI C1 – Sherwood Pines – May 12th

I travelled with a bunch of Irish riders over to my first race in the UK. The field looked impressively strong (about 50 Elites) with all their shiny team sponsored bikes and the race looked set to be a fast one. The course was almost completely flat (well, a few short 'climbs') but was 11.1km long! 5 laps meant that I'd be averaging about 22.5kph on twisty offroad single track :) That's almost as fast as my recovery rides on the road bike on the flat! My inexperience was apparent from the start when I went to the start area 10 minutes before the start to find that I'd be in the last row! All the Irish races with 12-16 Elites had me spoilt! The race went by pretty quickly with me never leaving the big ring. I had a few good tussles with the riders around me – it was one of the first times where I was constantly racing behind fast people. I guess with so many Elite starters the chances of having riders at an equal speed as me goes up dramatically. I ended up finishing 34th which I was reasonably happy with all things considered... After the race, I had another race, to the airport to get ready for my next days racing...

Sherwood Pines course

Irish National Points Series – Round 3 – Carlingford – May 13th

Arriving home on a Saturday night, tired, hungry and with a bike to be built up is not the best way to prepare for a Sunday morning race. The race in Carlingord was going to use much of the course from the one used in the K-Capital (the race I had all the punctures, blew up my cars engine and hurt my knee...) with some parts reversed and a new technical descent. Briefly, I felt squirely on the single track (it was pretty technical) for the first two laps and my legs only started to feel good on the 3rd (of 5) laps. Roger Aiken finished out winning the race (he went on to race in the Ras) a full eight minutes ahead of me - eeek.

Irish National Points Series – Round 4 – Larne – May 20th

This course was really unusual – it's basically an old quarry that will (hopefully) be turned into an outdoor sports adventure centre type place. Unfortunately, at the moment it resembles a quarry more then a sports centre. The race course was about 6km with 110 meters of climb per lap. The climbs were all made up of very short (some times very steep) climbs – not really the type of course that suits me. I'll leave the report of this one short – basically, Lewis Ferguson and I were having a nice wee tussle for first for the first couple of laps. For the 3rd to 5th lap I was about 30-40 seconds back on him then about two thirds of the way around the 5th lap my rear wheel burped and I lost most of the air. I hobbled to the tech zone, got some air in and as I left the tech zone I found out that I was about 1:40 behind Lewis. My body felt really good and my legs felt perfect (I had barely used the up to this point in the race as I couldn't get myself to go any faster then a cruising pace). I hammered off with my mind focused on catching him... Two minutes later, my front wheel hit a rock (not very hard!) and burped all the air out – my air canister failed and my race was pretty much over. To say I was a bit pissed about it is an understatement.

That's basically all my races up to last weekend. Last weekend I raced in the UK again but I'll write about that another time soon.

K-Capital Cup Round 4 - Castlewellan

Last Sunday saw the final round of the K-Capital Cup series taking place in Castlewellan. It's a course and a location that I really like. I raced there twice last year (the first race, in April, was my first race in Ireland and second race ever) and the weather had been perfect each time. As it turned out, the weather was again perfect with the race with the course running even faster then last year! (About 1.5 minutes was cut from a 19 minute lap time with extra single track added!)

My knee had been feeling a bit better over the last few days before the race (2 of the last 3 weeks were mostly off the bike :( ) and I felt that it would hold up okay for the race. The thing that I worried about was that it had been a while since I had gone hard on the bike – I didn't know if my legs and lungs would hold up to the fast pace I expected. Shortly after 1:30 the Elite race started at a very fast pace. Adrian Lansley was pushing the pace hard and unlike the last two races I felt myself slip off the back from the start. My legs just did not have the power to keep up – it basically felt that I was carrying an extra 10kilo back pack up the hill. By the top of the first climb (100m vertical over 1.3km with a few flat sections and bits of single track) the leaders had opened up about 20 seconds on me and I already felt spent – damn my knee! The next two laps or so I spent trying to hang on as best I could. I know when I'm pushing hard when I question why I'm putting myself through this... For the first 2-3 laps I felt like selling everything I have and giving up cycling completely! I guess I know I was pushing myself :) The remaining laps felt a good bit better (the first lap was my fastest with the following 6 all being around the same time - around the 19 minute mark) but I was still loosing time on the climbs. My descending and single track navigation actually felt really good. At the start of the season, before I started riding Elites, that is where I thought I would have had most problems – I guess 100mm of travel front and rear and nice wheels and tyres (Got SLRs and Huthinson Pythons recently – more on that later) can help! All the single track was very fast with the only breaking needed when you approached a tight switchback. I finished feeling I could continue for a while more, cooled down well and joined the MAD crew... (Thanks to Shane for helping me out with the bottles and mechainically throughout the series! I really appreciate it!)

The Expert race starts off - Yvain (215) wins the race and series

I should really try not to unzip the jersey! (Pic from here)

Robin finished out winning the race, and the series with Niall Davis coming in second. Results and report available here. I'm still annoyed about having to deal with my knee injury (I know, injuries happen) as I would have loved to have been able to push hard in Castlewellan.

The series overall was an amazing experience – the races were supper well organised and every course was magnificent. I really can't fault anything about it. I really hope that the series will be run again next year as I think the people organizing it all learnt a lot and the Irish XC scene gained a lot from it.

4 races down, lots more to go... Racing Elites has been great so far – the commitment to it all has been huge and there was a great speed boost over Expert but it has been such a rewarding experience so far.

K-Capital Cup Round 3 - Carlingford

So that was an interesting weekend of racing.

Sunday saw the third round of the K-Capital Cup visit Carlingford, Co. Lough. Luckily MET Eireann predicated beautiful sunny weather for the weekend so the pre-ride on Saturday and the race on Sunday were both held in beautiful sunshine. The course was amazing, if a little new (less the a week old in it's current incarnation). Basically, it was about 150 meters up a fireroad then left on to a steep single track climb and then a single track descent back onto the fireroad (about 1.5 minutes...) then another 900 meters up a fireroad, nowhere near as steep as last week. Then we hit single track for the remaining 3 kilometres of the loop. We were going to be doing 8 laps of the course.

Sunday morning was arrived and I felt more prepared then I did last week, my warm-up went well and I was looking forward to a bit of racing. Shortly after 1:30pm our race started and the Elites accelerated up the hill. Again, I was glad that the speed was not too fast and I set in behind James McClusky (out of the wind) for most of the climb. You could tell everyone was being careful in the single track the first time around and over the first 1km or so I passed a few racers out. About three quarters of the way around the first lap I was riding very comfortably (read – I wasn't going so hard I wanted to quit) and was enjoying a tussle between Lewis Ferguson, Lee Williams and myself. Then on a dual track the specific hiss of a snake bite came from my rear wheel – to say I was a little annoyed is an understatement, I was really really enjoying the racing and I still felt strong. About 2 minutes 20 seconds (wasted 20 seconds trying to find my CO2 cannister – rookie mistake) I was on the way. It was hard to get myself back up to full race speed, but I tried anyway... By the single track on the fourth lap (I think) I was back in 8th position and enjoying the race again when another flat occured. This time, as I had no CO2 or spare tube it was going to be a 2.5 km run across the single track back to the technical area... A new wheel greeted me at the technical area and I sped off – by the top of the fireroad climb I was in 9th when, this time my front tire flatted (I had given up to laughing about it all at this point). About 3km of single track running was ahead of my and I got lapped by the race leaders. When I crossed the line (5th lap complete of 8 total) I assumed my race was over due to being lapped so I put on warm clothes and drank chocolate milk and talked to the other races... About 15 minutes later I found out that I should keep racing as it's not over until the leaders finish. So, I ripped off my extra layers and cycled off without my gloves (the Bontrager foam grips are actually really really nice without gloves). I enjoyed the last lap and used the second half as recovery as I knew that the was no one to catch....

Picture of me descending from here

So, after the weekends racing I learnt a lot of things
1.Tubeless is the way forward – I'm getting a new set of wheels
2.You need a spare wheelset in the pits ready to go
3.Have spare tubes and CO2 ready to go
4.Keep racing until the commissionaire tells you your done!

The race left one other bad taste with me – at some stage I bashed my knee off a rock and it's been pretty sore since. I had to get off the bike yesterday after only a couple of minutes of easy riding and I wont be on a bike today. I'm icing it as a type and hopefully it will be perfect again soon.

There is a report available here and some more photos here.

A few more pictures from K-Capital Cup Round 2

Ellen took these photos as she watched the race.

About to start the 7th lap

Eva watching

Crossing the line at the end

Another race report can be found here.

Seasons first races - K-Capital Cup Round 1 and Des Hanlon Memorial Road Race

Last weekend saw me take part in my first race of the new season, the first round of the K-Capital Cup which was being held in the beautiful Kilruddery Estate. It is actually still really early in the season – it was a bit funny to have my first race of the new year, first race as an Elite and for it to be a UCI C2 event! Ahh well, nothing like jumping into the deep end :) I had been expecting the weather to be raining by the time my race started but luckily the rain looked like it was going to hold off. The course was a long 8km loop with two climbs (about 300m climb per lap), one very technical descent and lots and lots of amazing single track. The Elites had 5 laps to complete.

At 2pm our race got under way – a suboptimal warm up (will have to fix that for the next race) and a poor grid position meant that I was last into the single track (I made lots of novice mistakes). I followed along behind a few riders in the single track until we got out to the first clearing leading to the first climb. From there I started to go at the climb to catch up with the rest of the group. I caught and passed another couple of people by the end of the first technical descent but from that point on I was racing by myself (apart from when I was lapping people).

The Elites lineup for the start

Coming out of a little valley

Overall, the race was hard and left me more tired than any race I've done before... I was not over the moon with the way I rode (didn't feel very strong and was not very smooth on the single track) but I was happy with the way I finished in relation to the people around me. I really enjoyed meeting up and chatting to all the racers too – a lot of them I had not seen since the Marathon Championships last year... Photos and reports can be found here, here and here. The next MTB race will be held in Rostrevor on March 24th. But first...

Sunday seen me take part in my first ever road race. I took part in a Time Trial and a Hill Climb when I was in the US but this was going to be my first proper road race... The Des Hanlon Memorial was a 140km, 1800m climb race that was being held around Carlow. I didn't really do anything special preparing for it apart from cleaning up the bike and putting on my lighter race wheels as I was treating it mostly as just a hard training ride. The weather looked pretty nice for the race until about 2 minutes into the 4+ hour event. Riding in the peleton at 40km an hour a very heavy hail storm hit us. I thought it was a bit funny, my first road race and I get crazy conditions. I was very very glad to be wearing my Oakleys, every part of my body was being bombarded with little balls of pain – but at least I could see. The main brake in the field occurred about 40 minutes into the race at the first set of hills. The hail had cleared about 10 minutes and I thought the worst was over when Christmas Card snow reared it's head! Turning into the climb, I raised off the saddle and realised that my whole upper body was frozen – I could barely feel my arms and my legs felt num. The pace was increasing so I pushed hard (50kmph up a hill is cool) and I thought I stayed with the lead group but found out a little while later that there was another group of 20 or so riders a little further up. I didn't see it happen as, at the time, I was more worried about staying on the road and could hardly see 10meters in front of me with the snow! After that, the rest of the race played out as a hard enough paced training ride. The guys I was riding with didn't really want to make a go of trying to catch up and it was simply way to windy for me to try anything solo. Also, there was not much climbing for me to try and make time up myself. So I followed through for the next 3 hours and finished somewhere in 12-18 position. About 100 people started (rough guess) and around 20 something finished – lots dropped out due to the conditions. I look forward to trying a road race that's a bit shorter (maybe 3 hours or so...) and in nicer conditions later in the year.

Me sitting in second in our chase group about 84km in

Shinny new race bike

A couple of days before my first race I finally got my new race bike built up. It's a Specialized S-Works Carbon Epic and is pretty much my dream bike. I built up everything exactly the way I wanted it (spent months researching everything) and about the only thing that I might change is the wheel set (I'm using my race wheels from last year).

Complete, the bike weighs in at 10kg which is about 1.6kg lighter then the 'stock' S-Works build.

Just before it's first spin

The Pace RC39Xc fork is amazing - I now have the new XTR rotors on it

The drive train is full XTR M97x with a KMC 9SL chain


Ready to ride

As for how it rides... It's the best bike I've ever riden. Climbing, it feels as close to my road bike as I'm comfortable with and descending it does not feel too far for my Enduro. If your looking for a race bike, and don't mind spending quiet a lot of €€€, I think this is the ultimate bike.

Thanks to Starbike and Cycleways for helping get most of the bits together.

So long since I blogged

It's been so friggin long since I last update! Lots has happened since. I did a few races, traveled a good bit and had a great Christmas! So, I'll skip back to what was the highlights for me anyway...

Marathon Championships

Back at the end of September I took part in the Irish National Marathon Championships. It was the last major XC race in Ireland for 2006. It was by far the longest race I'd ever ridden and I was not so sure how to start out. The race itself was 52km of almost all soggy single track which I completed in 3 hours 54 minutes. My time put me in 6th position overall and 2nd Expert. I was really happy with the result as it placed me ahead of some Elite riders and I could have even been faster if I had not gotten a little bit lost a couple of times (I had to stop and wait for other people - there was one or two sections of the track that was poorly marked) and I also lost most of the use of my front brake for the second half of the race! The guy who won the Expert category was actually some Brazilan national champ or something... at least that's what people told me.... Robin Seymour won the race with Nial Davis coming in second 15 minutes up on me. I took the start way to easy (and got stuck behind people pushing their bikes up the hill), so hopefully I will be able to improve more on the race next year!

Mel finished 3rd lady (elite) in the race. She had a tough crash on a very technical descent that caught a lot of people – several people had race ending crashes on the descent. Her time of 5:21 was very impressive for a relative newbie!

The last climb of the race

Freeriding in Spain

A couple of weeks later I went with some of the Epic lads to Spain again for a bit of freeriding. I took my big bike again and had an amazing trip with a great bunch of lads. It was nice to be riding in t-shirt and shorts in 22C heat :)

Close to where we stayed in Spain

Road Hill Climbing in California

A while after that I was off to the USA for work. The work went grand and Kieran and I got to go on a few nice spins... One Saturday we climbed Mount Hamilton – one of the bigger road climbs in the Bay Area. The following weekend Low Key were running a hill climb on one of the more famous climbs in the area... Old La Honda. Everyone in the area knew their best time (was 18 minutes 20 seconds set in June) up it – classification for riders is even created from it as well as power calculators! There was about 55 people at the start (and one unicycle!). We went off in groups of 10 and when they asked for the faster people for the first group my brother stepped forward, so that meant I stepped forward. The skinny roadies looked around, almost in disgust as they saw a 'fat', hairy legged, MTB jersey wearing guy come forward :)

The race was cool. The group started fast so I hung in the back for the first 4-5 minutes (there was actually a bit of a draft, and this was going up a 7.4% hill). After a while I decided that it was a bit too easy on my legs so I went to the front and started to attack. Basically I strung out the group. After about 9 minutes the eventual winner attacked on a steep switchback. I decided to let him go (now, obviously I wish I didn't let him go). I had a couple more tussels with a guy who rides XC for the Santa Cruz Syndicate and another guy but dropped them with with about 1.5km to go. I finished strong and got a new PB. 16:59. (Kieran still has the Sherlock record by a few seconds)

future posts...

After I returned I went on my big trip of the year. A month long mountain biking trip to New Zealand. I've typed enough for this entry and I want to write a proper thing about the trip, so I'll leave those stories to another time. Some photos are here though.