NPS Round 1 Mountain Biking

Last weekend saw both Mel and I make our debut in Irish mountain bike racing (UCI C2 event). The race was going to be held in Castlewellan (which is about 2 hours from Dublin, 1.5 hours from Monaghan). We decided to make a weekend out of it all and take a trip via the course on Friday evening to Monaghan where we would stay for the weekend.

Work and various other things meant that we arrived at the course on Friday evening quite late so that we could only get 2 practice laps in. The course is reasonably technical as far as cross country courses go but myself and Mel were happy with it (Mel hadn't actually decided to do the race until she say the circuit).

We arrived at the race on Sunday about an hour before Mel's race to find a dry track and a beautiful day. There was 34 starts in the sports (beginner/intermediate) category. The race consisted of two laps of the hilly course. Mel finished in around 1 hour 6 minutes (there was no exact times available for the sports) to finish 26th overall or first girl to finish.

Mel just before the race

At 1:30 my race started. The Expert field was around the same size as the sport and started off at a frantic pace. Unfortunately, I arrived at the start about five minutes before the start and I couldn't get up to the front for the start. This left me fighting through slower racers for the first lap and a half. The second lap (of four) was my worst (and slowest) overall. I really enjoyed the last two laps – my climbing felt good and the course was technical enough to leave a good smile on your face after the descents (this was important, because you were trying to forget the burning in your legs!). In the end, I finished in a time of 1 hour 28 minutes (40 seconds) to finish up in 12th place. My goal for the race was to finish somewhere in the middle, so I was happy with the race.

About a minute from the end

The view on the way home

The weather was beautiful, the course fantastic and the scenery was breathtaking. A very enjoyable debut overall!

Downhill photos from Sea Otter Classic 2006

Before I blog about yesterdays race - I'll put up a few downhill photos from the Sea Otter Classic. Kieran took all of these. All these guys where hauling going down the course - even through the muddy sections.

Finally, the World Champion on his run

Ryan Leech performing some trials tricks

Sea Otter Classic

Last weekend saw my debut US race (indeed, it is probably the first big and proper race that I took part in). It all started out not so well about 8 or 9 days earlier when I was Ireland. On a normal spin around Three Rock I fell off on a decent almost knocking myself out. A few cuts, road rash, bruised (possibly broken) ribs and an arm that I couldn't move was the result. First off, I didn't think I would be able to recover in time for the race so I held back from registering. A week later, I was in the US and just about able to mountain bike – rough terrain was very difficult due to the complete lack of power in my right arm. I decided anyway, that I should pay my $60 and enter the race. Second wrinkle – registration was full! Damn it, looks like I'll watch the events over the weekend.

Saturday came (the day before the cross country) and my brother was taking part in the road race. We drove down, had a look around and he went to warm up. The nice thing about the Sea Otter is that all the big companies in any way related to biking had stands. (Lots of new products where announced and shown for the first time at it) In addition all the big bike companies where giving demos of their bikes. My interest got the better of me so I decided to take a Connondale Rush 2000 out for a spin around the cross country course. On my way back, I nipped around the to athlete registration booth to check, just in case... Surprisingly, registration was open again so I could now enter that race – suddenly my spin around the cross county course becomes a little more important.

The Rush is an excellent all rounder bike – it's not as fast or responsive as my XC bike but it offers a lot more comfort and is still very pedalable. (It's target market is endurance racers). The course was simply amazing – mile upon mile of flowing bermed single track, steep short climbs, 100m long sand traps, deep ruts, mud pits and about 4 miles of fireroad climb at the end. The spin went well – I took my time around the course and watched out for good passing locations and particularly technical sections (there was nothing serious – at least in comparison to Ireland)

After the spin, I found Kieran who had came 5th in his category (cat 4) for the road race.

Sunday morning started at 5am as I had to drive 1.5 hours to Montaray for the start at 8am! Eeek. I warmed up and headed down to the start. The first mile of the course was on the Leguna Seca race track. (The one with the famous cork screw bend). The race started and a pack formed for the first section – a slow initial pace was instigated (I was happy with that) and we trundled along to the start of the dirt. Once the dirt came, the pace quickened dramatically – suddenly, there was no banter. The first half of the course consisted mostly of single track decent and short(ish) climbs again on single track. From about 30 minutes in to about and hour the race was very hard going – very steep sections and an aggressive pace sapped all your energy. From about that point out it became easier (my body got used to the pain?). Positions changed a lot over the first 40 minutes, I kept moving between 2nd and 7th, but my the time the major climbs started the aggressive passing ceased. On the final climb (with the onlookers shaking bells and cheering you on) I picked off two riders who apparently blew up – a final amazing single track section and I popped out onto the race way again for a long (very fast) right hander onto the straight with the crowds cheering. The finish was an amazing rush!

Coming up to the cork screw corner at the start of the race

This was about a minute from the end just before I cut back onto the race track – I felt grand at this point.

I ended up coming fourth in the race – I was very happy with the result given the conditions. It was a great workout and I had no ill effects after the race. The course was 19 miles with 3200 feet of climb. My HRM reports that my average heart rate for the race was 175 (highest average I've seen myself accomplish in an endurance event) with a max of 199 (again – the highest I've seen)

The whole podium thing was fun (most do it again :)) - there was a big cheer for Dublin, Ireland :)

Things that I learned from the race:
Warming up properly really works
In comparison to mud, sand is easy (and fun!)
Keep with the leaders – if your dropped, your dropped (unless they blowup)
Don't be worried about people with the shiny shiny bike and clothed completely in one manufactures gear (but are not signed by the manufacture as a rider), as they are all mostly crap

My next race is the first round of the Irish NPS on the 23rd of April in Northern Ireland and I can't wait :)

(I think there will be another post about the Sea Otter with photos from all the other events that I got to see)

London Trip

I've been busy this last couple of weeks and a few interesting (at least to me) things happened. I'll start with two weekends ago when Mel and I went to London. My friend Annie, lives over their so we decided to take a trip over to see her and get another taste of London.

The trip itself was a lot of fun. We wondered around the craziness that is Camden Town, went clubbing, went around a few of the museams as well as wonder around the usual tourist attractions. And guess what, over the whole weekend I didn't buy anything (as in clothes, stuff etc...) I think that must be a first.


As you may have noticed, Mel decided to turn her hair blue for the next few weeks. She picked up some semi-permanant hair dye from Cyber-dogs in Camden and went crazy :) It turned out really cool (I'll find some better photos when I get to my desktop) – maybe I'll have to do that some day :)

I'm in California at the moment and getting in a bit of biking – but that post is another days business. The weather over here has been terrible almost the whole time! It's like a bad week in Ireland - not what I signed myself up for when I came over :(

Tech related - I put an extra stick of ram into my laptop a couple of days ago and turned off virtual memory. (It's now got 1.25gig) It's made such a performance boost. Eclipse, Outlook, Firefox, Thunderbird, Open Office, Yahoo Widges... it was all killing the machine but it's got a new lease of life!

Downhilling

A couple of months ago I picked up a longer travel (i.e. More suspension) mountain bike so that I could take it down rougher trails and possibly do a bit of downhill racing. After buying some body armor and a full face helmet, I entered my first downhill race two weeks ago. The race was close to Newry so it wasn't too bad to get to. I went up on Saturday with some of the guys from EPIC (who also turned out to be my tutors) for some practice runs. After the first couple of runs I got the hang of the slimely course and started to really enjoy it. The course is about 2 minutes (for the fast people) long without anything knarly. I arrived up on Sunday for the race having seen it rain for the previous 12 hours. The course that was slimey on Saturday was now truly a mudfest! I got a couple of decent practice runs in but mostly blew my two race runs. (Crashing on one of them!) I would have rathered a drier course for my first race – but it was still a great introduction! I think I'll take part in a couple of the NPS races that don't conflict with the cross country racing this year.

A new addition to the family

Last Tuesday Nicola and Shane had their third child. Jack and Alex now have another brother, Max, who was 7 pounds and 9 ounces at birth. All are doing well - with a little less sleep!

I only had my camera phone with me at the weekend when I was up, but here are a few pictures!

Max is SO small! You forget how tiny a baby is.

Testing blogging from my phone

Test.

Dublin By Night...

Mel and I were walking through the city center on Sunday and I took this picture. I have been trying to get a nice night photo of Dublin for ages.

Cold Weather

I did the Kilmashogue hill climb this morning. It was a beautiful crisp morning and the least muddy I've seen in a while (everything was frozen :))

New bike

Work, biking and running about have filled my last couple of weeks. Fergal, John, Mel and I are (hopefully) going to partake in an Adventure Race towards the end of March so we have been doing a little bit of training. Last Friday five of us (including Alan) went for a four hour night walk over the Dublin mountains. It was very nice and the night wasn't too cold.

Another thing that I did over the last while was pick up another bike. And yes, it does have a different purpose then my other one. It's a Specialized S-Works Enduro - it is about 65% a downhill bike, but it will also ride up the hill quiet well. I've ridden it for about 200 miles at this point and it's been a lot of fun. It's easily the most fun bike I've ever ridden. You can fly down hills that I'd never think of taking a hardtail down. The component highlights (as well as a picture) are below:


The Frame - M5 Enduro FSR frame
Rear Shock - Fox DHX Air 5.0 with 150mm travel
Fork - Fox 36RC2 Talas, 110-150mm travel
Brakes - Shimano M-965 XTR, hydraulic disc, 8" XT rotor
Brake Leavers - Shimano XT
Front Derailleur - Shimano M-960 XTR
Rear Derailleur - SRAM X.0
Shift Leavers - SRAM X-0, carbon Trigger :)
Cassette - Shimano M960 XTR
Chain - XTR
Crankset - Custom Truvativ Stylo with Black Spire Stinger shift guide
Wheels - DT Swiss EX5.1 niceness :)
Tires - Specialized Enduro, 26x2.3 and Maxxis Swampthing 2.35s Super Tacky for when it's wet/loose

Today I was almost at the top of Three Rock and it started to snow. This is a photo I took before I went down Bone Shaker.


It was beautiful! (Until I hit the road decent which was freezing!)

Budapest for the weekend

Mel and I went on our first holiday (I don't think Germany for a couple of days around Christmas counts) since Germany last Summer. A couple of months ago we decided that we should go somewhere nice in early February after a bit of looking around, Aer Lingus seemed to have the best deal on an Eastern Europe destination, so we ended up going to Budapest for 4 nights (Flights for both of us where around €220).

A daytime view of Buda and Pest

A picture from Buda castle.

Overall, the trip was a lot of fun. The city itself is very beautiful with huge magnificent buildings on almost every corner and lots of unused space around you (something rare in Dublin) at all times. It being set on the hills reminded me of San Francisco on more then one occasion. I would say that the highlights for us was sipping on delicious coffee, walking around the old streets and checking out some of their museums and thermal baths...

Climbing the steps on Buda up to the castle.

There were a good few things that I didn't like about the place.
One thing, although I can hardly blame it on Budapest, was that it was really cold during our whole stay. Between -10C and -1C for the entire trip. We brought proper clothing but it still meant that after a few hours outside you really had to go in somewhere warm. When we got back to Ireland 7C felt so warm!!!

Another thing is that, for a city of 1.8 million people, it's one of the most quiet places I have ever been. On our first day walking around the city, you could almost count the number of people on two hands that we met. It was cold, and low season, but there really was no atmosphere.

The last thing, and something that I believe to be really important about the places I go is the friendliness of the people (Probably why Thailand is my favorite place). I'm sorry, but the people there all seem to be depressed – they never smile! There was one Hungarian person that we seen on the trip (apart from the service in the Gellert Hotel which was excellent) that smiled and did something that could be taken as being friendly. The service was mediocre to terrible almost everywhere we went! I also think multiple restaurants tried to rip us off – I called one when it was for 40 Euro but the others I let go when it was for less than a Euro.

Having said all that, I enjoyed the trip – it's a very beautiful city but I would advise to leave a trip there to a warmer time of the year when it's a bit busier and the gardens (and locals) have thawed out!

Budapest Photos

The Danube was covered in ice for our stay. It looked really cool!

The view out over Pest from Buda.

The swimming pool part of the Gellert Hotel's Bath complex.

Gellert Hotel's Lobby (for the Baths)

Hero's Square. There were BMXers doing cool tricks around the front.

Adrenalin Weekend

I guess I could call this weekend a bit of an adrenalin weekend, or at least Sunday was. Sunday started out with a trip up to Demonstration Forest. It's a park frequented by mountain bikers (including the Santa Cruz and Specialized testers who have their main offices very close to here) that is just above Santa Cruz. I biked there last week and it was pretty wet, unfortunately this week was the same. This week the SawPit trail was in better condition then last week (0 slides/crashes) while Brail was very sketchy in places (3 slides/crashes). After my third complete loss of traction down a step muddy section, I looked back up the hill and had a huge smile on my face. The ground was very soft and good for practicing cornering on terrible terrain.

After I got back from the bike ride, myself and Alan headed out to Byron for our first sky dive with Bay Area Skydiving! Mel got me a tandem jump for Christmas (she has been raving about it to me for over a year now) so it was now time for me to take the plunge. The experience was a lot of fun. Flying up in a very crampt plane to 14,000 feet was quite strange! At a reasonable height I asked the guy I was jumping with if we will be jumping soon – he replied, nooooo, we are only at 4,000 feet! Ohhh!

The jump itself was cool – I actually felt quite safe – looking out over the edge seeing California below you – no feelings of vertigo, I was just looking forward to freefall! The first few seconds are interesting – a huge feeling of acceleration, then a really unusual feeling of the wind 'holding' you up. After about 15 seconds, the whole thing felt quite normal! After about a minute the parachute went out normally and the slow down was much more gentle then I expected. Flying the cute was a lot of fun! Swooping left and right and flaring! The landing was gentle and that was that. I'd say that anyone could go and do it! It's not a physical thing and it does not feel that dangerous when your up there. I know a lot of the biking stuff I do is a lot more sketchy

Anyway, that's been my weekend. I'm looking forward to getting back to Ireland on Friday!

Christmas

It's been a while since I last updated, so here it the 'highlights' from this last while.

Christmas was really nice this year. Mel came down to Monaghan with me for 4 days and we basically sat around, ate and watched movies (I got Mum and Dad a decent home theater system). We didn't even go out! I think that was the first time in about 7 years!

Two of my nephews, Alex and Jack

In a last minute decision I decided to fly with Mel to Germany for new years. We left on the 28^th and returned on the 1^st. Again, we had a very quiet time over there and enjoyed playing around in the snow.

Mel relaxing in a forest :)

Mel, her father and I built this iglou on New Years Eve

A picturesque German forest

Driving to Flansburg

Since then I've basically been working and biking. At the moment I'm in California on business for two weeks and enjoying the sunny days. (Although there are way to many rainy days this trip for my liking!)

MAD Club Championships

MAD where running their Club Championship race (photos) last Sunday so I decided to pop along. The race came in two parts. The first part was a hill climb from the M50 up Kimashogue Lane and on up a fireroad to the top. The second part was a 1 and a half lap race around the MAD race circuit.

The morning saw 17 (I think) of us lined up to start. A few guys where in fancy dress and the atmosphere was jovial. At around 11am the first part of the race started. Immediately a sprint started (to which I though, OMG are these guys gonna keep this speed up!) Luckily, they didn't and I was able to pick them off one by one as we headed to the fireroad. As we continued on up the fireroad I looked back to see Sean attack me from time to time. Each time I thought he got close I moved up a gear and worked a little harder. I ended up winning the hill climb with a time of 17:07 with Sean and then Mark shortly after.

Head down, climbing away to the top of Kimashogue

Sean, who finished second in the hill climb

The second part of the race was a fun race circuit. We started with a LeMans style start (in order to thin us out a bit before we climb a short hill that descended into single track). The start of the race went well for me apart from a few sections where I completely blew my lines. When I go biking myself I'm not used to following someone ahead of me and trying to get by, I guess that threw me off a little. At the end of the single track we emerged onto a fireroad that was to take us back up the hill to the start for another lap. Luckily I was in the lead at that point so I just put my head down and tried to create a little distance between the trailing group because I was afraid of them catching me on the following descent. (there was about 5 of us close together). The climb out was nice and the first part of the descent was cool – I took the rocky section very fast and entered the forest single track very positive. Midway through the first part of the single track in the forest section I jumped a drop off incorrectly and bent my rear derailleur in through the spokes and out the other side. I was pissed! It ended my race. The lesson I learned today is that when you are in the lead and you come to a sketchy section that your not used to, YOU TAKE IT EASY! Ahh well, another lesson learned!

I was bumed after breaking the derailleur

Bjorn in fancy dress (notice the knee/shin guards!)

The race was great and very well orgainised by the MAD crew. Hopefully there will be more things like this in the new year :)

Santa Cruz

Sunset in Santa Cruz, CA.

I was flicking through some photos from last year and I found this one. I thought it was pretty cool.

A Beautiful Morning

8:20am this morning

My new bike and racing

A couple of weeks back I bought a new full suspension bike. It's got a a pretty funky name, Fetish Cycles Seduction but is an amazing bike. It's a big step up in terms of controllability and comfort (in rough sections) over my old Stumjumper Comp hard tail. (Which Mel is now putting to great use!)

The bike had an interesting past getting to me – it's brand new but for the first 2 weeks I had nothing but trouble. Firstly, Paypal sucks so bad! I can't wait to Google come along and kill them. I wasted about 6 hours trying to deal with them. (Everytime you buy something of a certain value, alarms seem to go off!). Then when it arrived I had a few parts to upgrade/replace including the chain, the seatpost and the rear disc brake rotor. After all that was done though it's being riding like a dream.

This is the spec (similar to Ultra Seduction):

2006 Manitou R Seven Super 80mm travel fork
Manitou Radium RL rear shock with lockout
Crank FSA Carbon Cranks
Front Derailleur Shimano XT
Rear Derailleur Shimano XTR
Shift Lever Shimano XT 9-spd Dual Control
Cog Set Shimano XT 11-34T 9spd
Chain Shimano HG93 XT
Hubset Shimano XT Center Lock 32H
Rims WTB Speed Disc Pro XC double wall 32H w/ eyelets
Tires WTB Exiwolf Team XC 26 X 2.1 w/Folding Dual DNA
Brakes Shimano XT hydraulic disc
Brake Levers Shimano XT Dual Control
Handlebar Truvativ Team CarbonTeam
Grips WTB DOT
Stem Fetish Cycles Carbon
Seatpost Use1 Alien Carbon
Saddle Specialized Alias 143

And of course, I have to have a picture :)


Having spent all that money I decided that I'm going to have to start racing a bit :) Last weekend, M.A.D. where running a fun race close to where I lived, so I popped along. The track itself was great and it was an excellent racing down the single track at race speed. Basically we where speeding along a single track through a thick forest with almost zero visibility. In the end, I was lucky enough to win it with Nigel (it was a team event). Hopefully it will be the first of lots of races that I'll enter!

External Photos Gone :(

The server that used to hold my photo albums is now unavailable - so links to my online photo albums no longer work. I'm going to figure out a different solution soon...

The Wicklow Way

On Sunday morning Mark and Emma dropped by my house to pick Mel and I up for a fine hobbity day. Earlier Mark had called telling me that he was going up to Glendalough and wondering if Mel and I wanted to go too. We were thinking about walking home from Glendalough to Dundrum for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately the days are a little short (and it's a bit cold) for such a feat so we decided to cut the walk by about 12km and walk from Roundwood instead.

As Mark dropped us off, it looked COLD outside – there was even snow on the ground. The view was absolutely amazing though and both of us where dressed quite well for walking so it wasn't too bad. At around 10:40am we started off. We knew that we would have to keep a quick pace in order to make it home before dark. The walk itself was amazing – there where so many hikers out! It was sub zero (taking wind chill into account) and the mountains where full of people hiking.

Mark and Emma as they dropped us off

Mel about 15 minutes into the walk

Me shortly after

A really pretty tree about 3 hours from the end

The view with about 1.5 hours to go

We eventually got back to the house in about 6 hours 20 minutes. It wasn't bad for a 34km walk which crossed 5 mountains :) The walk was about one quarter of the Wicklow Way – the next day we will try to get another quarter done.