2014 Begins+Ballinastoe Biking Blitz

 Small update

So its been a while since my last update so before we go into the First race report of the year I just want to say a few things. First of all, I have to say a big thank you to Expert Cycles for all their support last year and I'm really looking forward to riding for them again this year. Secondly thanks to every one for the Get Well wishes after I broke my collar bone in November, I'm back on the mtb 3 weeks now. And finally as most of you already know, but for those that don't, this year I'm going to focus on racing Gravity Enduro with a line up of races here and abroad and on a New bike which you'll get to see in a few weeks. Right now the race report!

  

Ballinastoe Biking Blitz

So on the 2nd of February the 2014 Race season started! It began as always with the first round of the Biking Blitz held by Biking.ie. We arrived down to Ballinastoe around 9:30 and I got signed on. As the day went on Killian Callaghan and I watched the kids races. At around 12 o'clock we went for a bit of a ride to warm up the legs before the race. At 12:30 we lined up with the other 250+ riders for the first race of the season. At 1 o'clock we started. It was a bit of a push and shove off the start to try and make it past people to get up through the pack before the first section of singletrack. After that there was a lot of back and forth passing people and then being overtaken again by them, one of them being Conor Lavelle in particular. For the most part it was a very uneventfull race for me, just making passes where i could. Conor and I rode together for the whole lap. I managed to make up 3 places around the halfway point of the race just before the biggest descent on the course. That put me up to 5th in Junior. After that it was just a case of trying to keep them behind me to the finish line. As we got closer to the finish Marlena one of the 3 I had passed started to catch up again. For the last 2km I had to push hard to stay away from her and in the end it came down to a sprint to the line. In the end I finished up 5th in Junior which I'm delighted about after being off the bike for so long. Well Done to Paddy and Dan on 1st and 2nd.

Thanks to Biking.ie for Kicking of the Racing season in style as always and I'm looking forward to the next one in Ballyhoura. One thing I can take from the race though is I still have a good bit of work to do on my fitness level but overall its not to bad!

See you in Ballyhoura on the 16th!!