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.

Images from a Tenerife spin...

This is the first section from where we were staying in Puerto de la Cruz. (about 200m above sea level)

The other side of the mountain. Max elevation hit was about 2,350 meters

This section of road was mental - twisty, perfect, quiet roads :)

A long spin to go for Crepes...

Edgespace changes function and moves to Tenerife for a bit

As I've mentioned before a few times, I work for a software company that a few classmates and I set up when we finished college back in 2004. Our plan had always been to work as a consultancy company in the real world for a couple of years to gain experience and capital to help fund future projects. At the end of March the time for us to transition from a consultancy company to a product company arrived. We all got a lot from the previous two and a half years worth of consultancy but we were glad that it was time for us to move on to our own thing. A plan for the short term after ending was pretty simple – a couple of weeks off to recuperate from the last development cycles we completed for our clients and then a business trip to Tenerife in order to properly formulate our plans for the following year.

The trip to Tenerife was a lot of fun, our evenings were filled with nice dinners and business related discussions while our days were filled with various outdoor type activities. Me, being me, my days were obviously filled with a lot of cycling. Trying to get back in form after my injury I was fortunate enough to be able to put in a lot of good road miles in pretty nice weather. (Descending through clouds is always cold though!) The climbs over here were amazing. I had not ridden anywhere else before where I could go on an 40km climb that was a constant 5-6%. It never got too steep :) (I am trying to stay away from steep climbs until my knee is perfect) Another on the highlight spins was a 5 hour 120km spin that took in 3,300 meters of climbing – some of it on crazy windy roads :)

The view of Mount Teide from about 2,200 meters

The view from our Villa

Some of the crazy (beautiful) roads.

The quality of the roads was amazing

I didn't spend much time at the beach :(

Overall, the trip was productive from a business, biking, social and relaxation perspectives...

Promo Video for the Irish NPS Series...

A short video that the lads over on www.irishxcmtb.com made for the current NPS series.

I've raced one of the races (the second one last weekend - report on it soon) and there is another on this weekend.

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.

Barcelona

Two weeks ago saw Mel and I head off to Barcelona for 5 nights. It had been a while since we had traveled together (Paris last summer) due to Mel's college work etc... so it was nice to get away. The morning before leaving we ended up booking a hostel in the Gothic area which, as it turned out was a great location. Everywhere that we usually wanted to go was right on our door step.

Our main plan for the trip was simply to spend lots of time just hanging around relaxing in the nice weather. Unfortunately, the weather didn't join us (Ireland actually had a lot better weather for the week!) but lots of relaxing was had :)

One of the streets beside our accommodation

Mel in Park Gruel

The first couple of days we walked around to see the sights, Park Gruel, the Safrada Familia and the main produce market off Las Ramblas... were all pretty good but I think the constantly cloudy cold weather detracted from it all. As an excursion, one of the days we headed off to Girona for a day. The (old part of the) town was really nice. Small cobbled hilly streets with old churches and great pastries and decent coffee.

The produce market

Both of us enjoyed the trip but in that weather, 4 full days in Barcelona was a little too much. I guess I'm growing out of city breaks at the moment (2 days in Barcelona, 1 in Gerona would have been enough) and rather the more active holiday.

Praying to a Porcelain God

The last week has been pretty annoying. My company, Edgespace, is taking a little time off after our last contract so I've been off all week and the weather has also been amazing – that's all the good bits that serve to elevate my annoyance, my knee has unfortunately not gotten much better over the last few days. It's mostly fine but sore if I put any pressure on it while pedalling so the only spins I've been on have been pretty short and very very relaxed. It's been really frustrating with all the nice weather, the free time and a race coming up. I could have been out on 4-5 hour spins out into the backcountry... I have not had an injury since this time last year so I guess I should be thankful for that! 14 days to my next big race...

Friday was also a bit of an annoying day too – Mel and I cooked a Bangers & Mash recipe from the web – all went well and it was really tasty. We then watched a few more episodes of Six Feet Under, however, by the end of our second episode both of us started to feel bloaty and sick. Regardless, we went to bed – both our bodies spent the next 12 or so hours trying to deal with food poisoning! It was horrible, just like a very very bad hangover. We ended up spending yesterday (another glorious day) walking around like dead zombies.

A photo I took yesterday when Mel and I went out for a walk

Today both us are heading off to Barcelona for a couple of days – neither of us have been there before so it should be good :) Hopefully by the time I get home my leg will be up for hard training again...

Tootling along...

My knee has been pretty sore since Sundays race. I bashed it during one of my off single track excursions and then several things happened afterwards that meant I was driving cars for about 5 hours which I'm sure didn't help. On Monday, I was cycling into the city on the road bike but decided that it was sore enough that I should leave my bike with Mel in town. Then yesterday, I wanted to go on a very gentle spin to keep my leg loose... So I ended up cycling into town again, except this time on the Epic. I was riding by UCD anyway, going very easy (pratically only using my left leg) when I heard a jingle jingle noise coming past me. Turning around I saw what looked like a 20 year old student with long brown curly hair (no helmet!) passed me on what looked like an out of shape granny bike. I was riding along on a €5k bike in my club gear and got passed by a girl on a granny bike! I was good and kept going slow...

I had to laugh :) My knee feels good today so hopefully it's back to normal...

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.

Sauser's new Specialized Epic

Slightly old news but over on Christoph Sauser's blog he posted a picture of his new prototype Epic for this years Cape Epic. Unfortunatly for him, his team mate had to drop out which put him out of trying to defend his title from last year.

The new bike lost a bit of weight on the wheels (Stan's Wheels) and the frame (some new type of carbon). Pretty bling bling looking... His old one was about 9kg depending on tyres - this one is even lighter. I though I was pretty good with a 10kg bike.

He mentions his new bike 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.

K-Capital Cup Round 2 – Rostrevor

Sunday seen me take part in the second round of the K-Capital Cup in Rostrevor. I headed up to the course on Saturday in beautiful sunshine for a pre ride of the course. Afterwards, I decided to spend some of the weekend at home in Monaghan with my folks. Paul, Ellen (plus one more soon!) and Eva where there so it was nice to catch up with them. In fact, most of my family (Mum, Dad, Paul, Ellen, Eva, Gary, Pauline, Cara and Chloe!) decided to come along to the race the next day to support me! I really appreciated them all coming along, it was really cool to have them cheering as I went around each lap. It definitely helped ease my burning legs and lungs each time around! They stayed around the start finish which was probably a little unfortunate as I think they would have enjoyed watching us fly down the technical terrain! Maybe next time :)

The course for the race was amazing, if a little short. The first kilometre of the course climbed one hundred meters with parts that hit an eighteen percent gradient! An amazing fast downhill section followed that with a bit of flat single track in the middle. Then it was another climb, around fifty meters vertical this time, then a very fast descent with a huge berm and more rolling single track back to the start. As it was such a short lap we were going to be doing it 8 times to total a little over two hours of riding.

Saturday evening was nice and relaxing. I ended up watching United 93 before I went to bed. It freaked me out a little – I was in Manhattan on 9/11 and was actually supposed to be up the towers when the planes hit except that, lucky me, I went out partying the night before until 5am and then slept in a bit. I woke up the next morning to the sound of fire trucks...

Shorly after arriving at the course on Sunday, Sean and I headed around the course for a practice/warm-up lap. The course was still really nice, slightly looser in the corners (the sports race had just gone over the course) but still rode really well. It didn't look like the course would get cut up much with all our racing. (Although, by my last lap there was a lot more roots about to pull a wheel in the wrong direction)

Our race started shortly after 2pm and I was glad to see that the pace was not too hectic up the first climb – it would have been evil if someone really tried to push the pace up that thing. All of us entered the first stretch of singletrack roughly at the same time (I was about 8th wheel, which made a great difference from two weeks ago - this in itself I was happy with). A few spills in front of me seen our group get separated a bit but it mostly bunched together again for the second climb. From there on there was a bit of position changing. A funny moment when I flew off the trail when a root caught my wheel with Peter Buggle telling me that happened to him on the last lap... I hopped back on and continued to descend and seen Peter do exactly the same thing in front of me! It was funny at the time...

Descending on the first lap

The whole race was pretty hard with those big (steep) climbs every lap but the amazing single track really kept me positive about them each time. I really started to ride the single track well from the fourth lap on and was happy with how I raced overall. I felt a lot better then I did two weeks ago, I don't feel fast yet but I feel stronger and better equipped to race now.

Fourth lap following along some amazing singletrack

The other thing about the race was that my bike really blew me away with how well it handles that type of course. The brain (rear suspension lockout) and weight of the bike was great for climbing but the bike really paid off when I turned onto single track. There were sections of the course that were riddled with roots but I really didn't notice them much (apart form one time when I had a bit of a spill...) - it simply floated over them. I really can't give the Epic a good enough review.

Some photos can be found here and here as well as a report here. Photos from the race on the blog came from here. Full results can be found here.

Next week it will be the third round of the K-Capital Cup so I'll be taking it easy enough training wise to get ready for it...

New Zealand 2006 Part 2

Following on from Post 1 of my New Zealand trip - the next morning (after meeting Karl in Wellington) it was off to the South Island where I planned to spend most of the trip. The boat ride over to the other island was spectacular. It was about a 3 hour ride in a huge ferry (car + me was around €100). Beautiful weather welcomed me to my first stop there – a beautiful port town called Nelson. I did my usual routine – arrive, get hostel, get food and read the Kenneth Brothers Guide to MTB in New Zealand book and decide on today's spin.

Me on the boat on the way to the South Island

Nelson

Nelson

Coffee + Guidebook

My first spin on the South Island, at the time anyway, other spins later in the trip may have beaten it, was one of the most beautiful spins I've ever been on. A perfect day, beautiful mountains all around me and snow capped mountains in the distance. The pictures really do not do it justice. It was simply inspiring... The trails themselves were not very technical but the scenery more then made up for it.

Beautiful weather & amazing views

When I got back I started to sort out the next days spin. The longest of my trip. There is a famous walk/ride that takes 2 to 4 days to do. I wanted to do it in a single day, which all of the tour operators (I had to take a 60 minute boat ride to the trail head) had a great laugh at. Most of them said it couldn't be done. (I guess they thought I was just some lad who decided to go biking that day...) The trail is basically 71km of single track that is either going up or down... I don't know the exact altitude change (I broke my GPS at in Woodhill at the start of the trip) but I would guess around 3000 to 4000m all off road. The spin went well, about 3 hours in it was pretty hard because I knew I had at least 4 hours to go but I felt really good for the last 2 hours or so... When you see the “KM to go” signs drop to 20 you start to feel pretty good. I ended up doing the ride in around 7 hours. I was glad to have completed the spin but wish that the next time I was on a lighter cross country bike... The Enduros 150mm of travel and DH tires are not really made for this type of spin!

Around Nelson

Me at the start of the Queen Charlotte

I woke up the next day to see that mother nature was a bit pissed again. Heavy rain, low cloud cover and a long drive to Christchurch meant that today was going to be the first day off the bike. Christchurch is a nice enough town but not anything to write home about. It is a small enough city with “Mum's 24”, a Japanese restaurant, being the highlight of the town for me – I went there 3 times! The other interesting thing was the number of bike shops. In the space of 5 minutes walking you would walk by 6 or 7 bike shops. Rotorua was the only other town close to that. The next day I rode around the Port Hills for 4 or 5 hours. They were nice trails but the rear shock on the Enduro started to loose air (and I didn't have a shock pump on me) so I had to take it a bit easy on the rough stuff.

The next day I met up with Zane, Karls mate who lives in Christchurch. He took me up to the Waferdale trails about 1.5 hours drive from Christchurch. The spin was a very hard 4 to 5 hours over very wet, damp mucky ground. It really felt like, out in the middle of nowhere, backcountry riding with lots of hoist you bike over your head river crossings. I learnt a lot that day about how to get my bike up and over ledges etc... Later that day, Zane and his girlfriend kindly invited me to diner to which I obliged :)

In the hills above Christchurch - Looked very much like Ireland!

Zane and I at the end of the Waferdale Trail

I felt a million miles away from anywhere

For the following days spin Zane and I met up with some lads from the Vorb website up in Craigeburn. These trails were amazing. Huge mountain (ski fields in the winter) surround us with some amazing trails awaiting us. The Luge, was possibly (although there are a lot of other 'favourites') the best descent on the whole trip. A very natural, twisty, rooty fast descent that was tailor made for a bike like the Enduro. I was buzzing for about 2 days after it :)

The next day saw me make the trip from Christchurch to (possibly) my favourite town of the trip, Wanaka. But first I was going to head there via Mount Cook. The photos can not do this place justice. I was awe struck as I drove to the mountains. These things were huge. I felt like being in something straight out of Lord of the Rings. It looked so amazing, it looked like computer graphics was used to create it... After a Latte I headed out on a hike up to the Muller Hut. It was a prescribed 5 hour hike to the hut but I ended up going up there and back in a bit under 4 hours (including lunch – I guess my bike fitness carries over well into climbing...). It was really cool – a very steep climb in places up open mountain and over 10 feet of snow. The climb affording me some amazing views and a spectacular lunch at the Muller Hut.

The road to Mount Cook (in the distance)

The usual Latte before exercise

Climbing up to Muller Hut

The view over to Mount Cook

Muller Hut!

Proof that I made it

The Hotel in the distance is where I started, about 1,500m below me :)

Sliding down the snow was amazing

Another view of Mount Cook

In Wanaka I was dropping my bike into a bike shop to get the rear shock serviced. They said they would have it fixed in an hour or two so I went headed to an Internet cafe for some caffeine and a chance to video chat with Mel. When I headed back into the shop I seen the rear end of the bike in many many bits... “This does not look good” I though to myself. The guy in the shop turned to me and said “your not going to like this”. Turns out that the chain stays on the Enduro were very badly cracked and unridable. Another couple of drops and it could have been a spectacular crash... Fortunately, Specialized had new chain stay spare parts so the guys said that they would ship them overnight and I'd have the bike working the next day. Yes it was bad it broke, but thank God they could fix it so quick! The rest of the day was spent hiking up to Foxes Peak. I'll let the photos do the talking on this hike...

Another day, another stunning hike

My desktop background for a while

Bright and early I picked up the Enduro the next morning and headed to Wanaka's bike park. Lot's of man made MTB purpose built trails were a complete adrenalin hush. Lots of them with high speed burmmed corners through trees. Venus was probably my favourite trails.

The next two days I spent riding around in Queenstown – as usual the trails were great but I much rathered Wanaka as a town. Queenstown is VERY VERY VERY touristy. All the 18-24 year old, my first big holiday type tourists seemed to swarm there much more then anywhere else in New Zealand.

Ridge riding in Queenstown - a bit scary at times!

After Queenstown I headed down to Alexandra for a day of riding arid lunar trails. This place was amazing – about 80km from Queenstown which was lush rain forest to Alexandra which was like riding on the moon. When I was in the local bike shop, about to ask about the trails, one of the Vorb guys I met in Craigeburn noticed me and asked if I wanted to go out riding for a few hours. Can't get better then that – a local to take you around the trails. We rode for a couple of hours then he brought me along to one of the local DH tracks for a few runs. Nice fast track – good for training on. Next, I started to move back up the South Island but I'll leave that to another post.