On Saturday morning my Mum and I headed to the track. When we got there I went out and did a practise lap with The guys from Expert Cycles. After we finished the practise lap my team mates arrived for the Team Relay. Once Scrivo and Fergal were ready we went for another practise lap. The course was brilliant. It had a really good mix of singletrack climbs and descents as well as some fireroad climb. The Descents were technical and fun and quite fast. So at 1 o'clock I lined up to take the start of the relay for our team. Off the start I got away well and managed to get first into the singletrack. I held the lead until we came out of the first section of singletrack where some of the other lads went by me. I was now in 5th out of 6th. I pushed on trying to catch the rest who got away ahead of me. Half way around the lap I caught up with 4th place which was Paddy from the squad. I stuck on his wheel till the finish sprint where I just managed to pip him to the line. I tagged in Fergal and he set out to do his lap but got a puncture Half way around and we DNFed.
On Sunday my brother came with my mum and me. My brother and I went and did a lap of the course. After that I watched the U16/U14 races. The squad got some good results with a good few podiums. After the prize giving I went and warmed up doing 2 laps of the start loop which was about 3 minutes long. I then lined up on the start line in the front row for the race. At 2 o'clock the race got going and I got into the start loop in 5th behind Dan. We were like a train going thought the start loop all right behind each other. As we got onto the actual lap the top 3 started to pull away from Dan and myself. We started to work together on the fireroads to try catch the others. I pulled ahead of Dan for a while but he pulled back the time and near the end of the first lap a I had a stupid little crash. So for the 4th time this year I ended up doing the 2nd and 3rd laps by myself. I concentrated on trying to push on and get all of my lines. Going onto the last lap I was 50 seconds behind Dan.
My last lap was quite slow, losing a good bit of time on the rooty climb at the back of the course. I made it thought to the end off the downhill trail at the end of the course then all of a sudden Bang.. The Bottom half of the derailleur broke and would not tension the chain so I had to run through the last section of single track and up the Fireroad to the finish. Done. The Heat during the race was unreal. I finished 5th, 1 minute 40seconds behind Dan in 4th.
Big thanks to Expert Cycles For having my bike running sweet the whole way thought the race and for sorting me out with a new X9 Type 2 Mech since the race at a great price.
Also thanks to IMBRC for holding the best race of the year on the best course of the year.
Scott
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