Gravity Enduro RD2 3Rock

What a weekend at round 2 of the Gravity Enduro series! 2 days of riding and flat out racing on 3Rock. Things got going at 11am on Saturday as I headed out for practice with Jonathon Maunsell, Alex Nowtynski and Jordan Kelly. We spent over 5 hours out on course looking at lines and getting up to speed on course. I managed to get a little bit too up to speed while practicing part of stage 3 and had a big crash which hurt my wrist and stopped me from riding stage 4 properly in practice.

Race Day

Racing started at 10 o'clock on Sunday morning. With a shorter course everybody knew that winning times would come down to seconds. Stage 1 went well without any problems and managed to hit all my lines from practice. I felt that i might have ridden the brakes a bit to much in the steep section but I was still only 6s behind after the 1st stage. Stage 2 felt faster but still was a couple of seconds off the pace. Stage 3 went really well, got all my lines and didn't crash like on practice day. I manage to put in a similar time to the others on this stage so was pleased with that. Stage 4 was up next and to be honest i had no clue what I was going to be like on it without riding it properly on the Saturday. I did manage to get a clean run down but it was nearly 10s of the leaders pace. Coming into the final stage I knew I had to push hard and once again got a clean fast run down the stage and finished 1s off the fastest rider on the stage in our category. My times put me 3rd on every stage in my category. In the end I finished up 3rd in the 14-18 Category and 12th overall. Delighted to take 3rd in such a closely contested field of riders and looking forward now to heading over the water to race the Enduro World Series in Scotland next week.

Big thanks to Expert Cycles for having the bike running perfect for the race and to Adrian Van Der Lee and Action Pictures Ireland for the Photo's

Xc NPS Rd2 3Rock

So this is a bit late but I'll give you a short report from 3Rock 2 weekends ago. So obviously this was my home NPS. I helped to build the course as well as tape it out on the Friday and Saturday morning. The course was definitely one of the most technical courses of recent memory for xc. The race started at 2 o'clock. I got a good start of the line and manage to get into 3rd just before we entered the first singletrack. From that I was able to pull a bit of a gap down the first downhill which gave me some space for the tarmac climb. Near the end of the climb I was passed again and dropped back to 4th. I managed to move back into 3rd on the long descent back to the bottom of the mountain and held 3rd till near the end of the last climb before the finish. This went on till the end of the 3rd lap. As we hit the tarmac on the 4th lap I was still in 3rd place and had a bit of a gap. That didn't last though as 4th and 5th came past me like a steam train on the big 29ers. I tried to chase them but I had let them get too far ahead of me. I pushed on hoping I might catch them on the descent but it never happened. I came across the line by myself taking 5th place in the juniors. Big thanks to Robin in Expert Cycles for bring up a jockey wheel for my derailleur after it decided to implode just after I had arrived up and Adrian Van Der Lee for the photo's.

2014 Xc Nps Rd1 Slade Valley

The Xc NPS race season kicked off on Sunday with the first round in Slade Valley held by IMBRC. Being mainly concentrated on Enduro this year, I hadn't had any time on the cross country bike before the race but decided that it would be good training for the year. Dad and I arrived at the track early Sunday. I went for a practise lap just to make sure the course hadn't changed from last year which it hadn't. At 2 o'clock we lined up behind the S1 and got ready to race. I got a good start of the line and got up to the kicker on the start loop in 5th but couldn't hold the spot into the singletrack and dropped back to 8th going into the dh section of the start loop. After going through the start finish to start the first lap 6th and 7th started to pull away a bit up the first fireroad. Marlena went past me and I pulled in behind her and drafted behind her all the way back up to 7th again. The group of the 4 of us stayed together through the first single track and down the fireroad to the next section of singletrack. Just before the entrance I put in a sprint and got into the singletrack ahead of 6th place.
I pushed hard down the singletrack and opened a bit of a gap.I held 6th into the "Rabbit ride" section of the course which was the most technical section on the course. I managed to catch 5th place on this section but lost him on the fireroad after it again. I stayed in 6th for the next lap not making any mistakes and keeping it clean and fast. Towards the end of the 2nd lap my back started to get pretty sore but I pushed on. Half way round the 3rd lap I got passed by 2 other riders as I had slowed down a good bit due to my back. I got a gel into me towards the end of the lap and then put the hammer down. Even though my back wasn't right I pushed hard and caught back up with 7th place and passed him. Towards the end of the last lap I had to make a quick stop before the last climb to the singletrack to the finish as my saddle had dropped about 3 inches. After that it was straight forward to the finish with no problems. I finished 7th in the end a good bit behind the winner but I'm happy with my result considering having had no real training and a sore back. Well done to Paddy, James and team mate Dan on 1st, 2nd and 3rd.

Big thanks as always to Expert Cycles for their support. I'd also like to thank Adrian Van Der Lee for the amazing photo's. Check out his gallery here: http://adrianvanderlee.zenfolio.com/p981573289

See you guys in 2 weeks for Rd2 on my home turf, 3Rock

Gravity Enduro Ireland RD1 Ballinastoe

Yesterday saw the return of the Gravity Enduro Series with Rd1 in Ballinastoe. Practise took place on Saturday where I spent over 5 hours out on course looking at lines and trying to get those lines dialled in on the new bike.The course was a bit wet and muddy on Saturday but thankfully it dried up overnight and we were left with perfect conditions for race day on Sunday.




Racing started at 10 o'clock on Sunday morning. A new timing system which worked out amazingly well meant no more trying to tag in and out awkwardly.

Stage 1 went well, I tried to keep it clean and fast and not throw it away at the start of the day. I was 2nd quickest on the stage in my category which was a good start to the day.

Stage 2 went well. I put in a good sprint on the fireroad section and managed to catch the rider infront of me just at the end as we went through the finish gate. I ended up 2nd again in the stage times for my category.

Satge 3 was one of the best stages of the day. The new section up top was amazing with loads of jumps and berms. Once again I kept it clean and smooth and ended up putting in the 4th fastest time on the stage in my category.

Stage 4 had a lot of new stuff on it and with not being allowed to ride it on Saturday due to the weather and soft ground I didn't really know where I was going at times. Riding it without knowing where I was going made it hard to keep it clean at times. But that's something I need to work on for the World Enduro Series in Scotland in a month and a halfs time. I put in a good enough time to put me 4th on the stage in my category


Stage 5 was the longest and best stage of the day. At over 6 minutes long it's one of the longest stages in the series and was a real test of overall rider ability, with lots of pedalling and lots of fast decending. The new top section was tight and technical and I made a small mistake just before joining back onto the stage from last year. From there it was a clean run till I ran wide on a corner and caught a tree and had to get off the bike and pull it out from under the tree. My time on the stage was still good enough for 3rd quickest in the category.


In the end I finished 3rd in Juniors with a time of 21:56, 7 seconds behind Robb Hales in 2nd. My time was also good enough to be 8th fastest overall on the day. I'm happy with how the day went but I now know I have one or two things to work on for 3Rock in a months time. Well done to Conor who won our category (and set the second fastest time overall on the day) and to Robb coming 2nd.

As always Biking.ie put on a great race and Thanks to all the photographers for the photos!

Big thanks to Expert Cycles for sorting me out with the new bike for this year. Really happy to be riding the new Yeti 575.

Munster Enduro Series Rd 1 Tracton

So Sunday saw the start of the 2014 Enduro season in Tracton woods for the First round of the Munster Enduro series held by MBCC. It was a 5 stage, 2 run format (Best times count) with no practise on the Saturday. Racing started at 12 o'clock on the all natural course. The first 2 stages were very pedally, but went by without major problems. I decided not to take a 2nd run at either stage to try save energy for the next 3 stages. My first run down stage 3 I binned myself infront of a big crowd of people and backed off till I got to the end, and then went for a 2nd run which went much better. Stage 4 was much the same. Came off the bike on the first run, cruised to the finish and then went back up to do a second run. Stage 5 was definitely the best stage of the day. Steep fast and muddy. My first run went well and I managed to make the full run without any off's but felt I could go a bit faster so went back up for my 2nd run and managed to take 13second off the first run time. Overall I felt I put in good enough days racing. I finished up 3rd in the under 20's catagory and 5th overall which I'm really happy with considering my injury during the  winter. Well done to Robb Hales and Conor Lavelle on 1st and 2nd. Well done to MBCC for holding a great race.


Thanks to Expert Cycles as always for their support.
See you guys this weekend for the first Gravity Enduro in Ballinastoe!

2014 Biking Blitz Rd3 + Rd4

So after Ballyhoura being delayed due to the storm and not travelling to Galway for the 2nd round of the blitz, It's been a while since the last up date. Gonna keep this short as there is 2 races to get through.

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

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!!

 

Off season update

So its been just over 2 months since the last race of the season and as most of you know my off season hasn't gone so well. After finishing up racing, I got the chance to relax a bit, I got to go out and just have fun on the bike. I was getting out 3/4 times a week and was getting out a bit more with the club. My off season training was going well with my fitness getting better and better with every road training spin I was doing. About a month ago though my luck on the mountain bike ran out. After being out on a spin on 3Rock with a mate for just over 2 hours we were on the way home. We were coming down off the mountain on a trail called the Dreamtrack. We were sessioning some of the jumps on it and we were just about to finish up. As I came left the lip of one of the table tops I knew I was going to fast. I landed on the front wheel of the bike and went over the bars. At the time I didn't know but I hit the ground at 30 kph. I knew it was bad as I lay on the ground. I walked down of the mountain and got collected by my mum. We went to the VHI in Dundrum and then onto St.Vincents Hospital. 5 hours after the crash and I left the hospital with a broken collar bone and fractured scaphoid. 6 weeks on now and I have had surgery on my shoulder and just one more week till the cast comes off my wrist and I then I can start physio on my shoulder. Training is going well though even with this slight set back. I'm on the turbo trainer 3 times a week. If all goes according to plan I'll hopefully be back on the bike in the middle of January. Thank you all for the get well wishes and I'll be back in 2014 with a new focus and Some big goals!!

Scott