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
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