Team Expert Cycles

Team Expert Cycles

Wednesday, 29 July 2015

Gravity Enduro RD3 Djouce

The most recent round of the series took place last weekend and man was it a wild one! Saturday saw beautiful blue skies and dusty tracks compared to Sunday's Monsoon which left the trails like mud slides.The last 2 years now we have had pretty bad conditions for Djouce but after my performance in the 1st round in 3Rock I was pretty confident I could put in a good result. So riding up to the first stage and seeing how wet the tracks were kept me happy.

                      Here's a video from practice following my teammate Gavin (Watch in HD!!)


Stage 1

Stage one was the classic run from XTC to the bottom of Son of benchcut. Easy enough stage to start the day which is always good for as I kinda struggle on the first stage of the day in races. Had one small moment on the steep section of Phantom but kept it clean and smooth to win the stage in my category and 3rd overall.


Stage 2+3

The brand new stage that was so amazing, had turned to a mud slide overnight and made for a slightly cautious run with a few mistakes including a nice meeting with a tree. It was still good enough to take 2nd on the stage and 9th overall. Stage 3 I put in a another consistent and safe run to finish 2nd in category and 10th overall 


Stage 4

Stage 4 didn't go well by my own standards with a couple of mistakes and missing some of my lines which resulted with me having to run for a couple of seconds. Considering all this and surprisingly I took the win in my category and almost took my first overall stage win, finishing 2nd overall on the stage by only 2 seconds 


Stage 5

Stage 5 was going well till 2 silly crashes had me rolling around in the mud. Gloves had to come off and was throttle gripping the bike all the way to the end of the stage. Then I had the long walk back up the stage to where I crashed to get my Garmin which had fallen of in the crash. Some trek back up so it was. Lost 12 seconds on the stage and finished 2nd in my category and 14th overall.

Overall it was enough though and I managed to take the win in my category by 14 seconds. Even better I managed to put in my best overall performance to date with a 3rd place overall. Absolutely stoked to get inside the top 5 overall after knocking around the top 10 for the year. Big thanks to Expert Cycles for getting me this far and continuing to support me in my racing along with Endura. Also thanks to Adrian for the photo!

Looking forward to National Champs now in Ballyhoura in a couple of weeks time. Have always done well in Ballyhoura so hopefully it'll be nice to me again! 



Saturday, 11 July 2015

Update!! It's been a while.

So its been a while since I last updated the blog. So much has happened in the last couple of months with getting through the leaving cert and trying to train and race at the same time. Happy to be done the leaving and be able to concentrate on biking and racing. So since i last updated the blog I have done the last round of the 2014 Gravity Enduro series, the last round of the IDMS in Carrick, The first 2 rounds of the 2015 Gravity Enduro series and the 3rd round of the Vitus First Track Enduro Cup.

So last year things went well, not quite as I had hoped but got some solid results. Came 3rd at all all rounds of the Gravity Enduro series and 4th at champs. Had an amazing time away racing Megavalanche, finishing 270th in the Main race and battling it out on the World Enduro Stage in Scotland to finish 9th in junior.

Gravity Enduro RD1

So this year with the leaving cert I came into the race season a little bit unprepared and unfit due to not getting enough time on the bike. I was also racing in a new category as I was out of Juniors and into 19-29 and I didn't know how it was going to work out. Come the first race of the year the Gravity Enduro on 3Rock we had great conditions up till the day of the race where it turned into a monsoon! his played to my advantage and managed to win the race by nearly 2 minutes.




Gravity Enduro RD2


So after the first race there was a 2 month gap till the race which gave me some time to get the Exams out of the way. The 2nd round of the Gravity Enduro series fell the weekend I finished the exams so I had been of the bike for a couple of weeks. Considering that I managed to come away with 2nd on 1.5 seconds of the win. So after 2 rounds I'm leading the overall standings by 50 points. the Next round of the series is in Djouce which should suit me well and I can hopefully put in a good effort to keep my overall lead.

Vitus First Track Enduro RD3

Last weekend I was racing the 3rd round of the Vitus First Track Enduro Cup in Rostrevor. Brilliant course with some really nice stages and at 30km long it was a big day out on the bikes. All was goin well for the first 3 stages but on the 4th i bust a chain guide and dropped the chain 1/2 way into the stage and had to run the end of the stage. Thought my day was over  so went all out down the last stage and managed to make enough time back to win my category by 0.82 of a second. Super stoked to take the win on completely new trails with the problems I had.

Looking forward to more racing and have to thank Expert cycles for there continued support.




Saturday, 23 August 2014

Bluegrass Enduro Tour Dublin.

This is a bit late but here goes. Saturday brought the Bluegrass Enduro Tour to Ireland and with it the first ever multi venue race in Ireland while racing Blind. Saturday saw the women take on the 3 venues (Ticknock, Ballinastoe and Djouce) and 6 stages. There was some great racing in the women's category with Michelle Muldoon taking the win for the Irish. The men's race was the following day.


Sunday 

Sunday saw an early start from Powerscourt waterfall to get a bus to Ticknock. There were 2 stages, one very technical and the other a fast trail centre stage. First up was the technical one.

Ticknock Stage 1

Stage 1 started out on the fast flowy new trail centre section on Ticknock before turning of onto a much more technical, natural trail. This section was in the Gravity Enduro back in May so I knew this section quite well so I got through it at a decent speed. After 2 massive compressions onto the fireroad crossing it was into the steepest part of the stage but everything went wrong pretty much straight away. As I turned in to take a tight line beside the tree to have a straighter exit line I caught my front wheel on a stump and that was that. Straight out over the front and onto the deck. I got back up as quick as I could and got back on the bike. The rest of the stage was completely singletrack with a long pedaly bit at the end. I put in a time good enough for 3rd in my category and 13th overall. I was happy to have the first stage out of the way and to only be 10s of the top Junior even with the big crash.

 

Stage 2

Stage 2 consisted of one of the trail centre trails (Metro 1) and was a flat out sprint down the mountain. I knew this trail like the back of my hand from riding it on most spins I go on. It's all about carrying your speed and sprinting on the straights. I won the stage in my category and was 4th quickest overall. After this it was back onto the bus to go to Ballinastoe the second venue of the day.

 

 

 

 

Ballinastoe Stage 3

Stage 3 started with a slick rooty forest shoot before traversing across some of the hill. It then dropped onto one of the trail centre trails which was again fast flowing. After crossing the fireroad it was into some more natural singletrack and some wood work before hitting a long fireroad sprint to the last section of trail. This was another trail centre trail which was extremely fast and flowed down the mountain well. I finished this stage 3rd in my category and 12th overall.


 

  

 

Stage 4

Stage 4 was one of the longest stages of the day. Using a mixture of 2 of the Gravity Enduro stages meant there was a serious amount of pedalling and downhill. Everybody knew this was going to be the hardest stage so far. I started off well and made my way through the first section of tight slippy woods quick enough. There was loads of pedalling as we made our way backwards along one of the trail centre climbs before dropping into stage 3 of the Gravity Enduro. It had a great mix of berms and jumps but was followed by a god awful pedal to the finish. Once again I finished 3rd in my category and 10th overall. After this stage we had a cycle down the road to Djouce for the final 2 stages of the day.

Djouce Stage 5

Stage 5 was brilliant. Started straight away into a steep loose wide open corner followed by a quick pedal and then dropping across a path into a kicker climb. It then threaded its way through the trees and out a rooty shoot onto a walkers path. From here it was straight into a long section of off camber and a combination of bermed and flat switchbacks. After crossing 2 fireroad crossings and a chicane taped around some trees we were done. 3rd for the 4th time on a stage in my category and 11th overall

Stage 6

After a long climb up the red road it was time for the final stage of the day as the sun started to set over Dublin in front of us. It started with the same top section as always. Flat, pedaly and rooty. I had a small crash one one of the corners but nothing major. From here we were in for a big surprise. A whole brand new section of trail. It started out fast and flowed across the side of the mountain before turning into a steep straight loamy section. From here it was back onto the old stage and that was that for the day. Posted 3rd fastest time in my category on the stage and 11th overall.

It was then back to Powerscourt for ice creams and photos by the water fall. In the end I finished 3rd in my category a minute back on the fastest time in my category and 11th overall. Happy enough to be where I was considering the size of the first crash I had and the small crash on the last stage.

Big thanks to Alan & Matra from Action Pictures Ireland for the photos. You can see all the photos from the race here: http://www.actionpicturesireland.com/

As always I'd also like to thank Alfie and Robin in Expert Cycles for keeping my bike going 100% all the time.

See you in Carrick for the Final round Of the Gravity Enduro Series in 2 weeks time

Monday, 4 August 2014

Gravity Enduro Champs, Djouce

Gravity Enduro National champs took place yesterday in Djouce Woods. After the dustiest conditions we'd seen in Djouce all week Saturdays practice decided to throw 2 months of rain at us in one day. But practice had to be done so I headed out with Robb, Marcus and Jordan in the pouring rain. Practice went well looking at lines from earlier in the week and working out new ones for places where the track had change or couldn't ride. That evening I went home and put on the mud tyre up front.

 

Race Day 

Once again I woke up to the sound of rain battering the window at 7am in the morning. We made our way to Djouce and got under way at 10 o'clock. After the short first transition and a quick stop to watch a couple of pros go past I was ready to go for stage 1

 

 

 

Stage 1

Stage 1 was very similar to last years stage apart from changing the middle section from the longer, slightly slower Benchcut trail to the newer, faster, flowier Phantom trail. I wanted to start to keep the first stage clean to get the day under way. A slight bobble at the top in the first root section had me pick up the pace for the rest of the stage to make up the time I had lost. Phantom rode really nice in the race and reminded me a lot of the steep stages of Scotland. Quick sprint up the fireroad and then a clean run down the final section of singletrack to the finish put me 19th overall and 3rd in my category on the stage.

 

 

Stage 2

Stage 2 had a new section this year as well switchbacking between the trees. I got the first section of singletrack out of the way pretty quickly. After the short sharp climb I came in to the new section. I took it a bit to slow trying to get onto the high line which cost me time but once I got that the speed picked back up but I was a bit sloppy coming out onto the short piece of fireroad. Rode the rest of the stage cleanly and finished 25th overall and 5th in my category. A bit back on where I wanted to be.

 

 

Stage 3

Stage 3 had the most pedalling of all the stage on the weekend. The new section above the old starting point didn't help either. The new section was run over very mossy ground which made pedalling feel like you were going nowhere. After that ordeal there was even more pedalling along with some really technical root sections. Before the fireroad climb there was a steep section of single track with a couple of lines on it. On the Saturday I had decided I needed to be on the bottom line to get the inside line on the corner out onto the fireroad. So as I came into the section I set up on the low line only to get half way along it to find it had been taped off!! Pulled myself up onto the middle line but had lost some good time... After that I pedalled every where I could to make time back up. I finished 27th overall and 3rd in my category but again a bit back time wise

 

Stage 4

Stage 4 was on of the longest stages of the day. Got my line through the top section of the stage perfectly and came down past the lunch stop pretty quick into the next section which I cleaned pretty well. Hit the water crossing and into the final singletrack section. Lots of off camber in this section and didn't get on of my high lines right which spat me down to the bottom and caught my pedal on a stump which stopped me dead. Got going again and got to the finish in 17th overall and 3rd in my category.

Stage 5

Even before starting the stage I knew it was going to be a mess after seeing the conditions in Practice. Lots of pedalling at the top in the open. As I came into the forest I was regreting the blue tin lens in my goggles as I couldn't see a thing as I dropped into the steep part of the new section they had added. There was a lot of foot out action in this section as it was incredibly slick. Managed to get down it though and got onto the short firebreak where i got the goggles off. As I dropped into the next steep section things got quite out of control. I carried a bit to much speed into it and got side way and bounce of a tree still clipped in but somehow managed to ride it out. Got some cheer from the crowd that had gathered to watch things get rowdy! Sprinted the flat section to the end with a large amount of mud in my throat which wasn't nice. I finished 25th on the stage overall and 5th in the category.

Stage 6 was just a short sprint of a stage and went without any problems.

In the end I finished 4th in my category .5 of a second of 3rd and only 1 second ahead of 5th. Talk about close racing!! Well done to David Conroy on the win and to Conor and Killian on 2nd and 3rd. I finished inside the top 20 overall in 17th. Happy enough with my performance but thought I could have been a bit further up time wise.

Have to say a big thanks to Expert Cycles and their sponsors Yeti Cycles and SilverFish Uk for the support and having the bike running absolutely perfectly.

I'd also like to thank Adrian Van Der Lee and Action Pictures Ireland for the great Photo's in such crap weather. Links to both their websites and galleries below.
             http://adrianvanderlee.zenfolio.com/        http://www.actionpicturesireland.com/

Thursday, 24 July 2014

Megavalanche 2014

So while I was injured during the winter Jordan Kelly (Bespoke Cycles) contacted me to see if I was interested in doing the Megavalanche this year and of course I said yes. How could you turn down the biggest  mass start enduro race there is to do! So after some organising we got our stuff together and on the 6th of July Jordan, Killian, Robb, Marcus, Michal and myself headed to the airport to fly to Alpe D'Huez. After the 2 hour flight and a 2 hour transfer from Lyon airport we finally arrive at our Chalet in Alpe D'Huez. We spent the rest of the day building the bikes back up and getting the chalet stocked with food. The first 2 days were spent just riding the bike park trails and some of the race track. The trails are amazing in Alpe D'Huez. There's a mix of everything from fast flowing berm/jump tracks to the rocky alpine singletrack you would expect from the Alps. The only thing we didn't expect was the constant rain!



Wednesday saw the start of official practice. I was up at 7am to catch the uplift at 8am to the top of Pic Blanc to have a go on the snow. After a long wait at the second lift station I finally got to the top. A lot of cloud meant you couldn't see much at the top but I made my way out onto the snow for the first time. I was riding really well on the snow and had got down the whole way without crashing until the last corner where I ran wide on the corner and found a 4 foot deep hole where a river was running under the snow. I hit the hole got launched forwards and did a full front flip still attached to the bike by my SPD's before it got flung away from me. I took quite  heavy blow of my stem which left me with a nice deep cut. As I turned around after getting up I saw one of the french riders I had shared the uplift up also on the ground. He had also crashed but had come of worse with a broken collar bone. So after this it was a case of just get down off the mountain. So I limped down the Mega track to Alpe D'Huez which at the time was still being snowed on. I made it down and called it a day. Day 4 saw us do one run of the qualifying track before finishing up for the day.

Qualifying

I managed to get onto the front row for the qualifying race which was a 22 minute downhill race. I was lined up along side DH World Cup riders Sam Dale and Ed Masters! I got a good start off the line and got through the first corner on the snow well and got away well. I was sitting about 13 going into the first section of single track and quickly made 2 places on the large rock section just 15m into the singletrack. From here I held 11th for a good portion of the race till I was passed on a wide open section linking 2 sections of singletrack. Nearly as soon as the Guy had gone past me his tyre blew of the rim and he came to a stand still. From here I held 11th all the way to Alpe D'Huez  where I crashed in a berm in the town which let a rider get by. After that I kept it steady down to Huez where the race finished apart from one small crash when I hit another berm to hard. I qualified 12th in a time of 22 minutes 23 seconds. this put me on the 6th row of the main race on Sunday. Killian finished in a quicker time than me but finished 13 in his group so started a row behind me. Jordan finished 15th in his heat only 13s of my qualifying time.

Megavalanche Main Race

5:50AM the alarm went off. I pulled myself out of my bed and into the kitchen to have breakfast. soon after Jordan and Killian were up and in the kitchen as well. 7am came around pretty quick so it was time to head up to the Lift station to go to the top of Pic Blanc. At 10:30 everybody was ready to go. Queue the awful European techno music!! Alarma!!! And away we went down the ski slope bodies classing of each other. I got going pretty well and pic up a huge amount of speed but soon ended up on the floor and getting hit on the head by the bike. Got back on and made it down the rest of the snow fairly slowly. I ended up coming off the snow near the very back of the pack. Not the start I wanted from the 6th row but there was nothing I could really do about that. From there it was a passing game trying to make up as many places as I could down the mountain. Half way down the mountain I came across Jordan and we had a bit of craic overtaking each other and other people before I passed him on a climb and pulled away. I moved on up the rankings passing about another 10 people on the main climb. I then got to the mud and everything went south from here. The mud was just the worst thing I have ever tried to ride in. It got so bad that you couldn't cycle the bike and trying to carry a bike that is 8 kg heavier than origin is not easy at all. By the time I got out of the mud nearly everybody I had passed on the upper part of the track had gone back past me. For the last 10 minutes of trail I had a clear run down so decided to go as fast as I could down it even when there was nobody to chase. In the end I finished 261st out of the 350 starters in the main race. To say the race was hard would be a serious understatement. I'm happy to have made it to the main race but I'm not to happy with the result in the race. The main thing though is it was an amazing experience and will help a lot if I go back again next year.

I'd like to say a big thank you to my parents as without them I would never have been able to go on the trip. To Jordan as well for doing nearly all the organising for the trip and Robb, Marcus, Killian and Michal for making it some craic. Finally I'd like to thank Alfie and Robin in Expert Cycles for continuing to put their support in me and for keeping my bike running so smooth.

 
(Make sure to play in full screen and HD)


Wednesday, 4 June 2014

Enduro World Series Rd2 Scotland

The 2nd round of the EWS took place last weekend in Peebles, Scotland. Dad and I left for Scotland on Thursday afternoon and after 4 hours of driving and a 2 hour ferry across the water we arrived in Peebles. We got the tent set up and had an early night knowing I had 40km+ of practise to do the next day. Friday morning I was down to registration early and as soon as I had got my race number and timing chip we drove down to Innerleithen with Damien Daly. We got to ride the 4 stages for the first days racing which were super steep and technical compared to the trails here at home.

Race Day 1

So Saturday started for me at 10:38. After being talked to by Enrico on the start ramp I headed out on course. The transitions are timed in the EWS so I had 1.30hr to get to the first stage. I got there 20 minutes early so I had time to have a bit of a break before my start time.  

Stage 1
Stage 1 went alright for me. I was bit slow in the top section of forest and a crash didn't help when I turned in too late for one of the corners. After that I battled my way down to the fireroad where I put as much as I could into the pedal before dropping back into the woods again. I found it hard going on the off camber section along side the stone wall but I got to the end in a ok time. After stage 1 I was sitting 11th in E1 juniors with a time of 7:37:21 some 50 seconds of the pace.

Stage 2
Stage 2 went similar to stage 1 with being to cautious in the steep stuff and crashed coming out onto the fireroad sprint. There was a big compression onto the fireroad and as I hit it it bounced me out on to the fireroad and as I landed the bike went straight out from under me. Result of the crash was more lost time and a bent mech. I jumped back on the bike and finished out the stage as quick as I could. At the bottom I pulled the derailleur back straight and headed down to the time check. After 2 stages I was now on a time of 13:01:97 which put me sitting in 10 place in the category.

Stage 3
Stage 3 was the only E1 riders only stage of the whole race. It had one of the steepest sections of trail I have ever ridden. This stage went alright for me and I manage to catch both my 20s and 40s riders ahead of me. I clawed back some time to move me into 9th place overall in the category. Now onto the last stage of the day


Stage 4
Stage 4 was the last stage of Day 1. It consisted of mainly one of the black down hill runs in Innerleithen. This stage was amazing fun and the speeds on it were very high. I managed to put in a time good enough to rank me 8th on the stage in Junior and held on to 9th place overall at the end of the day.


Race Day 2

Starting day 2 I was 19seconds behind 8th place. The plan for the day was to try and catch him but I didn't know if that would work out seeing as I was going to be racing Blind!!!

Stage1
Stage 1 was a mix of open flat fast corners and tight switch backs followed by lots of natural fast singletrack with one or two climbs thrown in. As I was racing blind I got caught out by a few of the corners but really enjoyed racing it blind. This was my slowest stage of the day placing 8th but was also my highest placing on a stage in the race so far.

Stage 2
Stage 2 was one of the longest stages of the weekend at 3.7km long. It also had a huge amount of pedalling. I had a good top section and pedalled hard on the lower section to come to the finish in 6th place in the category on the stage. I was really starting to find my rhythm and pace now.


Stage 3
This stage was the shortest stage of the day at around 3 minutes long. It was completely downhill and I managed to pull out a 4th on the stage which I am super stoked about. After this stage it was time for a big transition back to the very top of the mountain for the last stage

Stage 4
Stage 4 was the longest stage of the weekend at 3.8km long. There was loads of singletrack as well as the longest pedal section I've ever come across in an Enduro in the middle. I pedalled my absolute ass off on the middle section and rode fast enough in the singletrack to give me another 4th place stage finish in the category.


From the Finish of the stage we rolled back down into the race village on Tweed Green and checked in to get our times. In the end I kept my 9th position overall but closed the gap to 8th place from 19s at the start of day 2 to 3s at the end of the day. I feel like I didn't give it enough on the first day and that let me down a bit on the results but I'm happy to come away from my first EWS with a top 10 finish and 2 4th places in my category on the last 2 stages while racing Blind.

I'd like to say a big thanks to Expert Cycles for getting the bike in race condition before heading over and for all the spare bit. Have to say thanks to my Dad as well as without him the trip never would of happened.

Next up is one of the biggest mass start mountain bike races in the world. The Megavalanche. See you in a months time!

Wednesday, 21 May 2014

Gravity Enduro RD2 3Rock

What a weekend at round 2 of the Gravity Enduro series! 2 days of riding and flat out racing on 3Rock. Things got going at 11am on Saturday as I headed out for practice with Jonathon Maunsell, Alex Nowtynski and Jordan Kelly. We spent over 5 hours out on course looking at lines and getting up to speed on course. I managed to get a little bit too up to speed while practicing part of stage 3 and had a big crash which hurt my wrist and stopped me from riding stage 4 properly in practice.

Race Day

Racing started at 10 o'clock on Sunday morning. With a shorter course everybody knew that winning times would come down to seconds. Stage 1 went well without any problems and managed to hit all my lines from practice. I felt that i might have ridden the brakes a bit to much in the steep section but I was still only 6s behind after the 1st stage. Stage 2 felt faster but still was a couple of seconds off the pace. Stage 3 went really well, got all my lines and didn't crash like on practice day. I manage to put in a similar time to the others on this stage so was pleased with that. Stage 4 was up next and to be honest i had no clue what I was going to be like on it without riding it properly on the Saturday. I did manage to get a clean run down but it was nearly 10s of the leaders pace. Coming into the final stage I knew I had to push hard and once again got a clean fast run down the stage and finished 1s off the fastest rider on the stage in our category. My times put me 3rd on every stage in my category. In the end I finished up 3rd in the 14-18 Category and 12th overall. Delighted to take 3rd in such a closely contested field of riders and looking forward now to heading over the water to race the Enduro World Series in Scotland next week.
Big thanks to Expert Cycles for having the bike running perfect for the race and to Adrian Van Der Lee and Action Pictures Ireland for the Photo's



Xc NPS Rd2 3Rock

So this is a bit late but I'll give you a short report from 3Rock 2 weekends ago. So obviously this was my home NPS. I helped to build the course as well as tape it out on the Friday and Saturday morning. The course was definitely one of the most technical courses of recent memory for xc. The race started at 2 o'clock. I got a good start of the line and manage to get into 3rd just before we entered the first singletrack. From that I was able to pull a bit of a gap down the first downhill which gave me some space for the tarmac climb. Near the end of the climb I was passed again and dropped back to 4th. I managed to move back into 3rd on the long descent back to the bottom of the mountain and held 3rd till near the end of the last climb before the finish. This went on till the end of the 3rd lap. As we hit the tarmac on the 4th lap I was still in 3rd place and had a bit of a gap. That didn't last though as 4th and 5th came past me like a steam train on the big 29ers. I tried to chase them but I had let them get too far ahead of me. I pushed on hoping I might catch them on the descent but it never happened. I came across the line by myself taking 5th place in the juniors. Big thanks to Robin in Expert Cycles for bring up a jockey wheel for my derailleur after it decided to implode just after I had arrived up and Adrian Van Der Lee for the photo's.