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Race date: 28/April/2008
Race series: Irish XC NPS Round 1
Race venue: Ballinastoe, Co. Wicklow
Race category: Elite
This weekend saw the start of the Irish NPS series hosted by Sorrento. Having just ended the K-Capital series and have raced 9 times in the last 9 weeks I was going to give this one a miss to get some long training spins in – but in the end, it was so close and rumors of a good elite field meant that I couldn't not take part - so Mel and I headed over on Sunday to race it. The course was a little bit over 6km long and had 175 meters of climb per lap. Elites were going to be doing 6 laps. The course started up a steep hill that turned into some new twisty single track, a short fireroad sprint and onto more foresty singletrack. You then joined onto a fireroad with a bit of a brag up to the first 'man made' single track section – basically, the new all weather trails... After that, another climb followed by a huge amount of very fast single track all the way back to the start.
At 1:30 the whistle blew and we were off up the hill for another 2 hours of pain. Joe McCall and a couple of others went for it over the first 100 meters but as the hill got steeper I moved into first to grab first entry into the singletrack, which I didn't relinquish. I took the first few sections of single track pretty carefully – I was in first and didn't want to make a silly mistake and let others through – there was no room for passing at all :) As we hit some of the climbs I upped my own pace a bit to make sure anyone that wanted to stay on my wheel had to work but the elastic broke pretty quickly and I rode the first lap alone. On one of the sections of singletrack midway around the second lap, Peter Buggle, closely followed by Liam McCreavy bridged up to me.
They were riding the singletrack well but were a little off my pace when climbing so for the next four laps I rode pretty steady on the climbs (a little harder then they were going) and took the single track pretty easy, basically recovering, learning the fastest line, making sure I didn't do anything silly like puncture and getting some practice in racing under pressure. My plan was to attack hard on the last lap on the last big climb and then actually ride the single track fast seeing as I spent a few laps scouting the trail.
When I did my warm up lap (no preride this time) I didn't know what the track would be like for racing on – but as soon as you started to race it really was a lot of fun. A course that really favoured close racing and I had a lot of fine riding with the two other guys.
One down, five more rounds to go, although I'm pretty sure I'll be missing some races due to other race commitments. My title defense has started :)
Race date: 20/April/2008
Race series: K-Capital Cup Round 4
Race venue: Castlewellan, Co. Down
Race category: Elite
700 days ago, I arrived at Castlewellan for my first ever mountain bike race. (Well, actually, I did the Sea Otter classic two weeks earlier but I wont mention that for now...) Dry, sunny, warm and a 12th place in Expert.I still remember being nervous before hand – wondering if I should have done sport but then really enjoying the course and race (I think about 35 people took part in expert that year). So, after 700 (ish) days I returned as an Elite for the final of the 2008 K-Capital Series.
The weekend, as usual, started with the preride on the Saturday. I expected the course to be pretty dry (it has not rained much lately, but it has been cold and windy) and it didn't disappoint. In fact, there were sections that were so dusty and loose that I was hoping for a little rain over night (which actually happened). The course was a couple of minute steady fireroad climb followed by lots of single track climbing and descending with a very stiff (18% loose) fireroad climb in the middle.
There was 170 meters (or so) of climb per lap and the Elites were doing 7 laps. As I rode my first practice lap, I noticed the huge smile on my face – the course is truly amazing and has everything.
A steady climb, lots of kicker climbs, twisty flowy singletrack, rock gardens, fast singletrack... the list goes on. It really is a world class venue.
I awoke Sunday to rainy weather – I was staying in Monaghan, checked the rain radar and it looked like Castlewellan got some rain, but none now – perfect. Mel and I arrived to the usual buzz with the Sport race having just started.
After Mel freaked out a little about a slightly worn brake pad (in these conditions it would last 100s of km) we both warmed up. Heart rate seemed grand and shortly before 1:30 we all lined up for the start.
As the whistle went we all sprinted off up the hill – same as usual except this time I didn't feel any snap in my legs. The lactate acid was built up to a max 30 seconds in. At this point I was probably around 7-8th position. As we exited the first large section of single track and climbed the steep fireroad section I joined into 5th place where I stayed most of the race. I enjoyed riding the singletrack but kept feeling that there was something a little missing (mostly in me?). On the second lap I passed Conor who was having some tire issues (he would later catch me again to claim 4th position). The rest of the race was pretty hard. My max heart rate (set on the second lap!) was 181 – a far cry from the 190 that I should hit while the average for the race was really low... (Not far off what I did for the 4 hours in the UK the week before)
After a near bonking moment on the 5th lap (fixed by a gel) I finished feeling okay but once I started eating I felt pretty sick.
(Very unusual – I can eat very well even after a hard race or training) I should have been recovered from the UK races but somehow I didn't feel it during the race.
Something to have a look at.
So that was the K-Capital Cup for 2008 – an absolutely amazing series of races which is really doing amazing things for Irish XC racing. (Downhill World Cup star Ben Reid was even seen at two of the races – maybe he will give XC a go – he did win the Expert race by a good margin)
A huge thanks has to be given to all the clubs that organised the races but especially to the Seymour family who seem to be at the core of most of the best Irish events – thanks – you made the opening of the season amazing!
Race date: 6/April/2008
Race series: K-Capital Cup Round 3
Race venue: Djouce, Co.Wicklow
Race category: Elite
This weekend was the third installment of this years K-Capital Series. Summer like temperatures during the week (shorts and short sleeve jersey!) didn't hold for the weekend so it was going to be bitterly cold with showers of hail and sleet! As usual, Saturday was the preride and Mel and I headed out early to have a look. The course was going to be very technical on the descents/traverses but reasonably easy climbs (fire-roads but a couple of steep single track climbs). The course started with a loop around the start field and then into a section of single track that climbs to a fire road that brought us up to mid way down XTC, down it then up a 1 minute fast climb to the start of Off Camber which lead onto a traverse across some open mountain.
Down onto a fireroad then up to Gran Canaria (my favorite section). After that, it was a tough single track climb to the top of the Earls Drive and then a long swooping descent to a very very tricky river crossing. Then, it was mostly single track climbing with some fireroad at the end back to the start/finish area. It was a tough 7.5km loop with about 280 meters of climb per lap. Elite had 4 laps.
Race day arrived and I actually felt reasonably good – as I'll be racing the next three weekends I took it pretty easy during the week so I felt pretty rested.
A good 30 minute warmup went to plan (apart from the hail storm) and we all gathered down at the start area for our 1:30pm start. My ranking in the series so far meant a front row start but some of the riders gridded further back just snuck up anyway (no big white lines on the ground this time to mark the rows). The start was pretty quick and I dropped back a couple of positions before the first singletrack but I didn't worry much as after that there was a bit of a steep climb and I knew I would get by people as needed there. The first lap ran out with lots of little battles. Lee Williams, Micke Haggquist and myself changing positions a lot. The second lap started and the tussles continued – I really enjoyed having a few battles on the course – the course lent itself pretty well to that as I was able to catch people on the technical terrain and people were catching me on the fire-roads (opposite than usual!).
At the top of the single track climb I passed Micke and Lee (hopefully for the last time) and started the tricky Earls Drive descent. Unfortunately, towards the bottom I burped my tire (first time with this wheel/tire combo – it was a mistake on my part) and then had to fumble around getting my CO2 (I hate long finger gloves for racing) out of my pocket, two jerseys down and filling the tire. Half way through the operation I watched Micke and Lee pass me by. Damn – had lots of fire in me now to catch them again.
I got going again and caught and passed Micke and headed after Lee up the final fireroad. At some point after this (and I don't know when) Lee disappeared – I didn't think he dropped me but I found out after that he had to pull out for some reason – that was a pity. Third lap was going reasonably well until towards the bottom of the Earl Drive descent I misjudged a corner and hit a tree at about 25kph. Man, I thought I broke something. A quick check of my mobility and I decided that I can continue – pretty shacken up, I rode like a squirrel for the next few minutes. Then, down at the river crossing, Micke passed me again. Damn! Refocused, I headed off into the climbs and caught him a couple of minutes later and put my head down to gap him. That was the last place changing for me for the day.
The last lap was pretty enjoyable despite my shoulder (which at this point was throbbing). With a few minutes left in the lap I got a glimpse of Joey McCall who was having a stormer behind me so I put the head back down and hammered up the last climb finishing a comfortable enough margin ahead of him in 8th position. (I should have been putting my head down like that on all the climbs!)
Overall, the race was pretty good fun – I never seemed to get the Earls Drive descent well but I was happy enough with how I rode aside from that. I lost a few minutes due to various mistakes, but that is racing. Today, I feel perfect (apart from the shoulder which is in bits) so now I'm second guessing and thinking I didn't push enough. Well, there is always next week...
Race date: 23/Mar/2008
Race series: K-Capital Cup Round 2
Race venue: Moneyscalp, Co.Down
Race category: Elite
They talked of rain. Met Eireann had big snowy clouds sitting over Northern Ireland all week – fortunately, the weekend was dry (but cold) and the racing fast.
This was the weekend of the Second Round of the K-Capital Series.
The weekend started with the pre-ride on the Saturday.
Mel and I drove the two and a half hours to the course and got three laps in. One slow, one fast, one slow. The course was good. Basically, it felt like 90% singletrack.
No big climbs (although there was 150m of climb per lap, it felt like it was mostly from steep kickers)
and all that single track didn't really suit me – but it was a lot of fun to ride.
There was no letup on the course, there was no section to take it easy and I knew that it was going to be hard on my body – not just my legs.
Race morning arrived and we drove back to the race course from Monaghan (a one and a half hour drive).Thankfully, the course remained dry and from watching the sports riders ride by, it looked like it was holding up pretty well.
There were a couple of mushy sections around the top of the course but really nothing to write home about.
Instead of warming up on the roads, I decided to warm up by a steady lap of the course with a few accelerations – all that went grand.
Just before 1:30 we were called up for the gridding – second row for me so I was pretty happy.
The first part of the course was up a steep fireroad then straight into single-track.
The field had a little of an International flair with 3 Belgians and 3 riders from Great Britain over for the race.
At 1:30 we were off – the start was not too fast but a huge surge right before the single track (which was a pretty technical entry point) meant that already there was a few little gaps formed.
Over the course of that single-track section most of the gaps closed again but by the time we hit the fireroad there was a small lead group of 5 slightly ahead.
Up the fireroad, I was sitting in 7th. This is were I stayed for most of the race – I could see one of the Belgians ahead of me (Patrick Gaudy)
on the straight sections and by the 5th lap I caught and passed him.
From that point on I slowly moved away from him eventually finishing up 2:17 later in 6th position.
The race was pretty tough - 6th place is my highest finish in a UCI C2 race but I actually wasn't particularly happy with how I raced.
I rode technically pretty well but I didn't feel strong – I didn't feel like I had the legs to push hard –
I felt that the maximum I could do was a soft pedal. My max HR was 183 (should be in the 190s...) and average HR was pretty low.
That was a bit frustrating but the season is long and the next race is two weeks from now.
(No racing for me next week – training and recovery is the name of the game)
Another of the positives I guess was that I finished with very little left in the tank.
In Kilruddery, I could have kept going for hours at the same pace – not so yesterday.
Race date: 09/Mar/2008
Race series: K-Capital Cup
Race venue: Kilruddery, Co. Wicklow
Race category: Elite
Yeeeah – for race season. Yesterday was my first cross country race of the new season –
a UCI C2 event which was the first round of the K-Capital Cup Series.
The race was being held in the amazing Kilruddery Estate like last year on a course that was pretty similar to last years but a little shorter.
The course was basically a big climb followed by a very technical rocky descent (about 2-3 minutes)
then a flat fireroad over to another 3-4 minute climb. Next was an amazingly long fast single track section
through the woods that goes on for hours (well, not quite, I wish). Another few minutes of climbing and
then a chunk more singletrack that eventually takes you back to the start/finish area – about 8km long.
Preparation all started on the Saturday with the preride. Having just finished building up my new race bike(more on it later) the day before it was going to be its first ride. Like last year,
it was an S-Works Epic so the geometry was exactly the same and fortunately I had been using my new wheels for a
few rides so I had no qualms about racing on such a new bike
(I've built up enough bikes at this point that I'm confident in my mechanical abilities...).
The day started with heavy showers so by the time I was out on the course it really was very sketchy in places.
85% was bone dry, 15% was very wet – I heard that there was a rush to the bike shops after the pre-ride to get mud tires!
Anyway, the pre-ride went fine and I was looking forward to the race.
I woke up on Sunday to beautiful sunny skies (and the "why am I about to put myself through this" feeling) and the hope that we might actually have a dry race. By the time I got to the course I got to see a few of the sports riders riding around during their race and they were not covered from head to toe in mud so it looked like conditions had dried out a lot since yesterday – sure enough, after further inspection of the course, it had, and the blue skies around me gave me the real hope of a fully dry race.
The Elite Men were off at 1:30 and as I knew the gridding was based on last years world ranking I arrived about 4 minutes before the start to my second row position (last year I started at the back – would not have been so bad this year though as
there was no single track for a long time, just a big climb to get warmed up on).
The race started and the pace was not too bad.
I stuck with the leaders up the climb and down the slab descent. A few little gaps then formed and unfortunately I was
a little back from the next person up (Ross Creber) so I didn't get any drafting on the flat section.
The next two hours was basically me pushing myself to get around as quickly as possible.
Unfortunately, apart from chasing Ross for a while I was not racing with anyone until I started to lap people on the 3rd of the 5 laps.
I finished up 2:23 after the start to come in in 10th position (3rd Irishman).
I really enjoyed the race and the singletrack was simply amazing – it is possibly my favourite course to ride but probably
not one that suits me the most. The quality of the riders that came over for the race was great too –
it had the feel of one of the big UK races! I knew it was early days in the race season for me as when I finished the race I still had legs for another 2-3 laps at the same pace
(need to push harder). Also, my average heart rate for the race was very low – about 7-8 bpm lower then it would usually be
for a race of that length so I have a few things to work on before the next cross country race
(the second round of the K-Captial Series) in Tullymore in two weeks.