Biking Blitz Rd3 Ticknock
"I could see Killian coming out of the single track as I was climbing the tarmac road for the second and final time"
Ticknock was the venue for the 3rd round of the biking Blitz held by Biking.ie. It was a pretty casual start to day, arriving up to 3rock around 11 o'clock. I decided I would use my dads Yeti for the races as training for the enduros. I got a practise lap in with Jonathan Maunsell and Alex Nowotynski before the race. The Line up was called a bit earlier than I expected and ended up having to slot into the middle of the 150 rider start. After getting a bit caught up at the start I started to move up the group. I battled with Killian Callaghan all the way to the top of the first climb before starting to get away from him as we came to the new first single track. It was a bit hard to pass on the new trail with all the riders so bunched up but after overtaking about 7 riders I got a clean run to the end of the trail. From here on it was a case of pushing on as I had ended up by myself with nobody to pace myself of or catch. At the end of the First lap I could see Killian coming out of the single track as I was climbing the tarmac road for the second and final time. The rest of the race went without any problems. I just tried to keep pushing on to try put in the best overall time I could. I had a few little Battles with Ian Coates and Paddy Dally towards the end which was brilliant and the last run down to the finish I tried to have a bit of fun while still racing! I finished the race in 4th place which I am happy with considering I was racing an xc race on an Enduro bike!Biking Blitz Rd4 Ballyhoura
The finale of the series took place in Ballyhoura, Co Limerick. After leaving early that morning Dad and I arrived down to Ballyhoura about 11 o'clock. Once again I got a warm up in before the race on the green trail with Jonathan and Alex. At 1 o'clock we lined up on the start ready to go. This time I was on the front row. As the siren sounded to start the race, I slipped my pedal and fell into Gareth next to me. After that bit of a pile up of the start I got going and got into the first single track in 7th in Junior. I rode with Alex all the way till just before the halfway mark were he then started to pull away from me. Pushing on I started to feel quicker and at this stage was in 6th. There was still one section of boardwalks still out of action from the storm so there was a detour around it. It ran down a rocky fireroad I was hitting about 50km/h and every dip you hit you were taking off into the air. After that The climb started and god was it a slog. But by the end of it I had managed to catch and make up 2 places which moved me up to 4th. From here on it was all downhill to the finish on most of the last stage of the Gravity Enduro which was great on the Yeti. In the end I came home in 4th place. Once again I'm happy with how the race went on the big bike but felt the first half could of gone a bit better! 
A big thanks to Expert Cycles for helping me out again this year and to Cycle Action Photography, Action Pictures Ireland and Ross Photography for the Photo's. Looking forward to the First round of the Gravity Enduros in 2 weeks time! Also If you haven't already seen it here's a link to the 1st Episode of #ALLTHELADS