Irish XC MTB

Irish Cross-Country Mountainbiking information

Race report: XC Development series Round 2!

Mar 10

Posted by irishxcmtb in Announcement, Development, Offroad Commission, Report, XC racing, Youth | No Comments

Report below thanks to Richie Byrne from EPICMTB:

Last weekend saw the penultimate round of Irelands most Successful Cross Country Race Series.
It was dry in Ballyhoura, Co Limerick, dry, sunny and a little bit chilly. A fabulous start to a fabulous race.
I was never expecting as big turnout in Ballyhoura as the previous race in Wicklow as a lot of people won’t stray too far from DunDrum Town Centre in case theirs a sale on in H&M !!

First up was the under 8’s , lucky for EPICs Caoimhe May had the race to herself. The rest of the under 8s obviously saving themselves for Galway she completed the Under 12’s course in record time with no help whatsoever from her Mum !!

Boyne MTBs Superstar Jamie Grifferty won the Under 10 race with EPICs Cian May just behind him in 2nd, and next up was Kristoff Rael !!

Jamie

The under 12s was a one horse race with Boynes Ali Martinis taking 3 laps to show his domination of the Under 12s.
Racing 795s most talented rider without a beer belly Paddy Furlong in Second and Newcomer Eric Duffy in 3rd

Ali

Right…Hot favourite for winning the A race, Damo Duggan of Flow fame was on the line..Dark Horse Rob Davis from 021 Racing resplendent in his ” Hooters” T-Shirt on board some sort of Tank was looking around scanningfor competition !!

And away they went

and then the Bs took off with fire in their bellies and hi 5 in their gutses !!

Right behind them the Lady Women

After A Lap 1 it was Hooters Boy Davis in front , with Damo , Dan Carroll and Hughie Geraghty storming through the finish area together !
It was moves like this that shows the world class riding skills of Dublin Mountains wild Man Rob Davis!!

Out in the woods word was coming back that a certain ROundwood, Co Wicklow rowdy was holding up the show..

First winner home in The Bs after 2 hectic laps was EPICs Paul Kelly..in his final race as a B, he has to move up to the big league and the Models, I believe Cheryl Cole is ringing him night and day !

Then the Ladies Winner EPICS Carol Farrelly

Then the Sports A Juggernaut appeared and rumbled through the finish line like an out of control Heavy Metal powered thing !!!
Dan Carrol swiped it from under the nose of Damo with Rob just about there but no !!!
Aaarrrgghhhh!!!!!!
I haven’t seen racing like this since the old battles between Bob seymour and Crazy Man Julian Dalby.

Spectacular wipe-out of the day goes to Brian O’Sullivan and Alan Hickey:
check out the “I am going to plant you!” grin on 115 – Brian O’Sullivan…

and then…..

WHAMMMMYYYY!!!!!!!!

We just had to give them medals for that kind of entertainment!

All I can say is myself ,Fergal and Sean have shown exactly what XC racing is all about, no meandering around the mountains with only the ghosts and the boogey men for company..
This is the Nazcar of MTB racing, man and machine fuelled up, burning with the desire to win or wipe the other guy off the track ..Wheel to wheel , trading positions with each other , banging handlebars, cursing rainjackets and hating camelbacks and chafing baggies !!

Thanks to Rob Drohan and Cormac Eason from MBUL for their thankless grafting, The Forest manager, the Guy in the car park , the XCt1 lads. and of course Fergal and Sean and Conor,Aine,Justin May, Jer Jackson, the marshalls,the Red cross and everybody involved
See you in Derroura
Richie

Online reg. now open for Leinster League and XC Dev. Rnd 3

Mar 10

Posted by irishxcmtb in Announcement, Development, Offroad Commission, Regional racing, XC racing | No Comments

Online registration is now open for the 2010 XC Leinster League Rnd. 1 and XC Development Series Rnd 3.

Please ensure to select the correct category and the correct event!
Sport A and Sport B are only applicable to the  XC Development Series Rnd 3.

Enjoy the racing!!

XC Development Racing: Round 3 (final race)

Mar 10

Posted by irishxcmtb in Announcement, Development, XC racing | No Comments

The 3rd and final race of the developmental XC Race Series events commences on 21st March in Derroura, Galway.

This series is sponsored by the Cycling Ireland Offroad Commission, Biking.ie, and Snap Printing, being managed by Richie Byrne from EPICMTB and supported by various volunteers and club-members around the country.

While you have the option of registering on the day, you are requested to register online for this event in order to speed-up the sign-on process and reduce queues on the Sunday morning.

Online registration will be closing at 1pm on Sat 20th March so make sure to register in time!
Sign-on on the Sunday will close at approx 11am so ensure to arrive early, get your race plate and have a practice lap or two!

This 3 race series is aimed at the beginner/novice, women and youth categories and there won’t be any savage climbs, everything will be rideable.

There will be an A and  B category for Sport:

  • A for riders who have reasonable experience on a bike
  • B for complete beginners

Other categories will be:

  • Women
  • Under 16
  • Under 14
  • Under 12
  • Under 10
  • Under 8.

Entry fee will be €10 for SPORT A/B, Women, and Under 14/16.
All other Youth categories will be free entry but one day licences will be compulsory.

It is planned that Under 8/10/12 races will start at 11am with Under 14/16/Sports A & B/Ladies at 12 midday.

The Offroad Commission will be providing the medals and additional support along with senior racers from various clubs – big thanks to those who have volunteered to help with this series!

XC Development race Rnd 2: Race results

Mar 7

Posted by irishxcmtb in Announcement, Development, Results, XC racing | No Comments

Thanks to everyone who came out in the sunshine today to race! Hope you all enjoyed yourselves, thanks also to Rob Drohan and the MBUL gang, Richie Byrne from EPICMTB and the Offroad Commission for the organisation and smooth running of the race.

Here is the link to the finalised race results

The youth results are below:

Under 8’s 1 Lap
1. Caoimhe May

Under 10’s 2 laps
1. Jamie Grifferty
2. Cian May
3.Kristof Rael
4.Ryan Dunne
5.Aaron Wade

Under 12’s 3 laps
1. Allesandro Martinis
2.Paddy Furlong
3.Eric Duffy
4.Leah Maunsell

A full report will also follow.

2010 Leinster League Round 1 (Sunday 28/March)

Mar 2

Posted by irishxcmtb in Announcement, Regional racing, XC racing | 1 Comment

Racing795 will be hosting the first of the Leinster XC League races on 28th March in Kilbrannish, near Bunclody, Wexford.

The guys down in Wexford have been very busy with course preparations and this is set to be an excellent kick-start to the XC Racing season and a great lead-into the XC NPS.

A lot of riders are keen to ride a new course and get some early-season racing in to test new bikes (and new legs!), and see how fast they are versus the other riders in their respective categories, and how much more training they’ll need to do….

With sections named as ‘Paradise’, ‘Critical Mass’ and ‘The Dabbage patch’, the Rnd 1 course is going to offer a wide variety of terrain to test technical skills and fitness.
Read the full preview here.

The 2010 Leinster XC League is comprised of 4 races:
The first being hosted by Racing 795 in their new venue, the second by Cuchulainn again in a brand new (private) venue, with the remaining two doubling as rounds of the XC NPS hosted by IMBRC at Slade Valley, Saggart, Dublin and MADMTB on 3Rock, Dublin.

As usual, there will be Online Registration for this event, registration for this event will open on Monday 8th March.

Get ready for this,  get down to Wexford, see how fast you are, and show your support to the Racing 795 guys !

Win Coaching at the XC Development Series

Feb 26

Posted by Morgan in Announcement, Coaching, Development, XC racing | No Comments

As part of his continuing support of the XC Development race series, Niall Davis from Biking.ie will be taking two groups of five riders out for a pre-lap (or part thereof, due to the length of the lap) of the Ballyhoura race circuit on the morning of the race. The aim of the pre-lap is to help the riders get through their first race with some hints and tips.

The prizes go to the first 10 riders to contact him via the form on www.biking.ie. And don’t forget there is also a prize for the winner of the Sports B race to come take a private training day with Biking.ie!

Race Report – XC Development Series Round 1

Feb 23

Posted by Morgan in Development, Report, XC racing | No Comments

Arctic conditions in Wicklow only added to the buzz in Ballinastoe Woods, Co. Wicklow on Sunday 21st February 2010.

165 eager riders from under-8 to over-60 to take part in the first race of its kind in Ireland. The brainchild of EPICmtb’s Richie Byrne, the idea was to get people racing XC for their first time without firing them untested in to the XC NPS.
I’ve always felt that if you put a human on a bike, regardless of its wheel size or whether its  tyres are slick or 2.5” of knobbily rubber, they will want to race it against another human.  I thought by running a race series just for Sports ( the entry level for adults racing) it would take the pressure off  newcomers and relative newcomers. Its also fair to say  that after 20 years involvement in MTB racing I know what people like! So I came up with a short lap without a desperate climb or unrideable descents. It had to be doable by everybody regardless of their ability. Then I split the senior category into two: Sports A for experienced riders and Sports B  for complete beginners. We also had Women, Under-16/Under-14/12/10/8.

From XC Development Race Round 1

The Offroad Commission got on board with me as did a whole host of people from across the MTB Community, with senior riders from nearly all the local MTB clubs helping out, not to mention Irelands no 1 Mountainbiker and unbeaten EPIC Blast Winner Niall Davis of Biking.ie giving a  hand with free pre-race coaching. Read the rest of this entry »

XC Development Racing: Round 2

Feb 23

Posted by irishxcmtb in Announcement, Development, Offroad Commission, XC racing | 1 Comment

The second of the developmental XC Race Series events commences on 7th March in Ballyhoura, Cork.

This series is sponsored by the Cycling Ireland Offroad Commission, Biking.ie, WheelWorx and Snap Printing, being managed by Richie Byrne from EPICMTB and supported by various volunteers and club-members around the country.

While you have the option of registering on the day, you are requested to register online for this event in order to speed-up the sign-on process and reduce queues on the Sunday morning.

Online registration will be closing at 1pm on Sat 6th March so make sure to register in time!
Sign-on on the Sunday will close at approx 11am so ensure to arrive early, get your race plate and have a practice lap or two!

This 3 race series is aimed at the beginner/novice, women and youth categories and there won’t be any savage climbs, everything will be rideable.

There will be an A and  B category for Sport:

  • A for riders who have reasonable experience on a bike
  • B for complete beginners

Other categories will be:

  • Women
  • Under 16
  • Under 14
  • Under 12
  • Under 10
  • Under 8.

Entry fee will be €10 for SPORT A/B, Women, and Under 14/16.
All other Youth categories will be free entry but one day licences will be compulsory.

It is planned that Under 8/10/12 races will start at 11am with Under 14/16/Sports A & B/Ladies at 12 midday.

The Offroad Commission will be providing the medals and additional support along with senior racers from various clubs – big thanks to those who have volunteered to help with this series!

XC Development Series Round 1 results

Feb 22

Posted by irishxcmtb in Development, Offroad Commission, Results, XC racing | No Comments

Howdy All,

Thanks to the HUGE amount of racers that participated in today’s XC Development Series event in Ballinastoe, Wicklow.
Hope you all enjoyed yourselves!

The bit of snow helped cool the temperatures of the riders as they roasted the singletrack with high intensity racing!

There was loads of entertainment in every category, with mini-battles going on all over the place.

A massive 165 riders signed-up to race, with a significant portion being first-time racers which is great to see!

It was just as well the SPORT A riders were set-off an hour later than the non-SPORT A group because SPORT A accounted for 75 riders, with the other categories not far behind with 68 riders!

The Youth (U 8/10/12)  categories were also well represented with 22 little rippers flying through the course.

Big thanks to the organiser Richie Byrne from EPICMTB, Offroad Commission, the sponsors – Niall Davis from Biking.ie, Wheelworx, Cycling Ireland, Snap Printing, all the marshalls and helpers and families and friends who provided roars of encouragement and support!

Some photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aidot/show/

RESULTS:

U14 U16 WOMEN SPORT B results
SPORT A results

Youth results :

Category Pos. Name/number
UNDER 8 1 Caoimhe May (2)
UNDER 8 2 Lewis Carr (6)
UNDER 8 3 Pia Farrer (4)
UNDER 8 4 Jack Thompson (3)
UNDER 8 5 Luke Kennedy (5)
UNDER 8 6 Colm Keogh (7)

Category Pos. Name/number
UNDER 10 1 Jamie Grifferty (24)
UNDER 10 2 Nathan Carr (23)
UNDER 10 3 Jack Mooney (26)
UNDER 10 4 Cian May (18)
UNDER 10 5 Shaun O Flaherty (25)
UNDER 10 6 Ryan Dunne (27)
UNDER 10 7 Ross Ennis (16)
UNDER 10 8 Sean Orange (21)
UNDER 10 9 Ben Orange (20)
UNDER 10 10 Cillian Osbourne (19)

Category Pos. Name/number
UNDER 12 1 Conor Kavanagh (35)
UNDER 12 2 Allesandro Martinis (36)
UNDER 12 3 Kyle O’ Connor (31)
UNDER 12 4 Thomas Hughes (37)
UNDER 12 5 Mia Cullen (33)
UNDER 12 6 Eric Duffy (32)

The next round of this series will be down in Ballyhoura Co. Cork on Sunday 7th March, with the final round happening in Derroura Co. Galway on Sunday 21st March.

Regards,
Offroad Commission

DMP now recruiting Volunteer MTB Rangers

Feb 17

Posted by irishxcmtb in Announcement, Service | No Comments

Attention Mountain Bikers,
The Dublin Mountains partnership is extending its volunteer ranger programme to encompass mountain biking.

This is an important set for the Dublin Mountains Partnership and gives us the opportunity to be involved in helping to manage recreation through out the Dublin Mountains.

From a Mountain biking perspective it is important that we get involved and help influence how recreation activities are managed going forward.

We would like to encourage any mountain bikers who uses the area and would be interested in getting involved and giving something back to contact the DMP.
Below is the official press release and website address.

Regards,
Cycling Ireland Offroad Commission

Join the Dublin Mountains Partnership Volunteer Ranger Service!

We are recruiting active, enthusiastic and committed walkers, hikers, mountain bikers and outdoor enthusiasts to join our established Ranger Team in Spring 2010.
The Dublin Mountains Partnership was established in 2008 to improve the recreation experience on public lands in the Dublin Mountains. The Volunteer Ranger Service is a vital aspect of the project and duties include improving access, trail work, way marking and helping to improve visitors experience to the wonderful resource we have on our doorstep.

We hope to establish a mountain bike patrol within the ranger service in 2010, potential rangers who participate in mountain biking and are keen to join the service should apply.

Would you like to be involved?
Check out http://www.dublinmountains.ie/volunteer_ranger_service/volunteer_ranger_service/
for full details and an application form.

Closing date February 28th, 2010.