Xc NPS RD 2 Killarney

So it was back to Killarney again for the Second round of the NPS last weekend. The weekend started off a bit earlier for me this weekend as I was down on Thursday to climb Carrauntoohil with the school. On Saturday morning we woke up to lovely morning, sun shining after climbing Carrauntoohil in the snow the day before. At 9 o'clock Jon arrived and 2 or 3 of the other guys on the team were already there so we went and set up the team Team tents up at the start/finish area of the track. At around 12 o'clock the rest of the team arrived at the hostel. We had a meeting to begin the weekend with the team. After that we had a talk from Ed Niland on Nutrition, Hydration and giving us some training tips to get the most out of our training. I found this pretty interesting and got some good information from it. We then headed out to the front of the hostel were we were giving some new Clothing from Dare2B Clothing. We got a Race jacket, Gilet and some nice hats. The stuff looks really good and really stands out. We got a few team photos with some of the new gear on us before we went and got changed for our practise laps of the course.

So after getting change into our gear for practise we headed out onto the track. James Hanrahan and I did our practise laps together. We stopped and sessioned a few sections. I manage to get sun burnt as well during the day. We came back to the hostel and got showered and changed out of our riding gear. We then had a lovely dinner cooked by some of the team members Mums and Dads. After dinner we had a game of football and then watched some T.V. I was in bed at 10 as I was pretty tired from the days before.


Sunday Morning came around and again I was up early. The team met for breakfast around 8/8:30. After breakfast I put on my gear for racing and put on some warm cloths and my Dare2B race Jacket  I headed up to sign on in the field. I then went and had a chat with some of the guys from MADMTB. I then went and hung around the pit area talking to some of the guys and making sure my bike and others were ready to race.

At 12am the U16 and U14 races kicked off. Alex and I watched and cheered on the team members racing. Some great results for some of the Guys and Girls in the Youth Races with Paddy"GaGa"Michel winning U16 and the rest of the Top 8 being Team riders. And also well done to Leah Maunsell and Shannon Buller winning their respective category's as well. 



At 1 o'clock I started my warm up. I did Half a lap of the course with James following me. After that I did some sprints on the start line before lining up on the Start line. 3.2.1 Go. I sprinted of the line going into the First corner in 3rd place. I got paced near the end of the Field  and ended up in 5th place going into the first section of singletrack. From there I stuck behind Chris Oakley for half the lap before I got passed him. I stayed ahead of him for the rest of the lap and we came into the finish area. At he start of the second lap Chris passed me again and started to pull away. For the 2nd time in a Nps I spent the rest of the race by myself fighting to catch up. I tried to get all of my lines and be as consistent as possible with my legs being tired from climbing. At the ends of the race I came into the finish area and finished in 5th place. I'm happy with my result as it was a full on couple of days and I was tired. Well done to David Montgomery, Max Van Der Lee and Dan Brickenden on the podium. Thanks to James Hanrahan for doing my bottles during the race.


I had a great weekend racing and I'd like to thank Jon Hynes for organising it. A big thank you to Dare2B Clothing and Cycling Ireland for the brilliant gear and support, To Killarney Cycling Club for holding a great race on a unreal course and finally to Dave Wilson who provided the team with a great bike rack to be used at the rest of our races and Bike Addiction for helping everybody get there bikes sorted. Looking forward to NPS Rd 3 in my back garden 3Rock in 2 weeks time.

Scott

Enduro Training And Gravity Enduro RD 1 Practice

So in between Training and XC Nps Ive had a little time to do some training for the 2013 Gravity Enduro Ireland Series. Today was the practise day for the First round of the series in Carrick Co.Wicklow. Alan and I Arrived down to to carrick around 10:15. We got the bikes out of the car and got them sorted. We then went to meet up with the rest of the MAD crew to go sign on for the practise and race. After sign on we headed out onto the mountain and went to stage 2 to begin with. After a short 15 minute transition we arrived at stage 2. I'll let the video do the trail explaining but stage 2 is really fast
and fun

 After that we continued on doing the next transition up to Stage 4. Stage 4 had the most changes of all the trails. There was a new middle section and a new lower section that was a very muddy and pedally. It has been changed for race day tomorrow. Although it was muddy it was a good fun and put some of the xc mud training from last weekend at Cong to get through it. At the end there is a brilliant flowy jump section.

The Last stage we did was Stage 5. After the longest transition of the day we arrived up at the very top of the mountain. We stopped for a little bit of food at the open area at the top under the blazing sun. Stage 5 is basically the Dh NPS course and is one off the longest descents I know of. It had a new pedally part near the end but some mud got on the camera so had to cut it out of the video. Good luck to the MAD crew racing tomorrow and Luke Courtney/Joesph Clancy from the Development Squad. Thanks to Niall Davis for the Race setup and Hope the Weather isn't to bad tomorrow.

Finally here is a video of some of my training from the past few months when I wasn't Racing XC or XC training.

Xc NPS Rd 1 Cong, Co.Mayo

So the first NPS of the year kicked of this weekend in Cong, Co. Mayo. My Dad and I headed down to Cong on the Saturday morning to meet up with the Development Squad. After a short Meeting we headed out for a spin around the track. By this stage it was raining and the track was getting quite muddy. The technical sections were quite good and overall I liked the course. We then headed back to the hostel for dinner. After dinner we had another short meeting before chilling out with some of the team members before going to bed.

Sunday we woke up to more rain. My dad and I headed down to sign on early enough before heading back to the Hostel. We came back to the course around 10:30. A couple of us stayed at the team tent for a while before going to watch the U16/U14 races. After those races I started to warm up. It was fairly cold and still raining slightly.

At 2 o'clock the senior category's lined up on the start line. Juniors were in behind S1's and we were doing 4 laps. Just as the race was about to start it began to bucket rain. Siren went and I got the Holeshot into the First section of single track ahead of David Montgomery. I held him of in the singletrack till the next fireroad where he took of ahead of me. On the fireroad I was also passed by some of the other Juniors. We continued on in a pack for a while before I began to drop of the back. For the next while I rode by myself. I arrived at the steps of doom where I gave them a shot but hit the fence running down one side of the steps and nearly went over the bars. In the process I cracked my shifter open and I lost 1st,2nd and 3rd gear and well as knocking the shifter loose. After this I continued on battling through the mud by myself for the next lap and a half. My aim after breaking the shifter was to try hold 5th place till the end, put in consistent lap times and try get all of the lines I wanted in the mud. About half way through the 3 lap I caught Anthony. We swapped positions a few times for the rest of the lap but eventually I managed to pull away. For the 4th lap you were able to start to find a little bit of grip on the track. Myself and Rony Buggle (Team Worc) had a great race on the last lap once again swapping positions. Towards the end of the race I was surprised to see Max Van Der Lee (Epic) at the side of the track trying to free up his back wheel as it was clogged solid.

In the end I came home in 3rd place 2 minutes behind 2nd place. Delighted with the result and pretty happy to see the lap times were fairly consistent. Well done to David and Chris on 1st and 2nd. It was a great race overall even with the hard conditions.

Overall the weekend was a great success with loads of podiums for the Development squad and a great race.

I'd like to say a big thanks to Cunga CC for holding a great race in the Hardest conditions I've ever raced in. I'd also like to say thanks to Jon Hynes for the weekend and organising the hostel. And finally a huge thanks to James Hanrahan for doing my bottles during the race.

Looking forward now to Killarney for the 2nd round of the NPS in 2 weeks time. See you all the.

Scott