Not my first bike, I had a Chipper before it, but this, my first real bike, no stabilisers, was a present from Santa! He had to save for it for a year! Brand new shiny chrome and a funky old school BMX helmet, which I never wore much. BMX was THE big thing back then, and I dreamed of being able to cycle over a VW Beetle like the kids in BMX Bandits!
Meet Drinagh @ 6.30pm
5 mile timed, 20 mile total
All welcome
Results (tail/cross wind)
Padraig, 16.20
Simon, 15.20
Adrian, 14.29
Donncha, 12.19
So the lads up in cork hosted a round of the national points series and the attendance was good, well ok, alot of the Dublin websites this morning were talking about the ‘long haul’ down to the race, for god sake, its 2 hours on perfect motorway!? fortunately the weather was very good and the track was amazing by all accounts.
In the S2 race Rory Mcliam finished 18th and his brother James was a DNF. Niall o hara of the host club was second and the perhaps over raced Brian McCarthy was a very good fifth. In the elites Robin seymour was his usual god like presence, winning at his ease, doing a couple of the laps in 16 mins!!
In the junior cat, Drinagh’s own Alex Nowotynski had a bit of a rough introduction to real XC racing, having previously only competed in local mickey mouse races with no competition. Alex has trained with varying intensity and application for this race and is applauded for racing at this level as even though the numbers were small (6 raced) the standard at the top is excellent with the top 2 having competed in the past against Britains best underage.
Perhaps it was this real race experience that proved the biggest difference, as on a hot day and testing course, race strategy is critical. Proper Hydration and fuel are essential as is pacing, when Alex looks back at the lap times and how he felt i am sure he will approach future races of this level very differently, or at least he should do! Although he was lapped by the junior winner and was 10 minutes off 3rd place, Alex should look in this as a good start and valuable lesson in the art of racing. It takes at least a dozen races at this level before one even has the basic idea of how to get the best out of oneself on a given day. With this in mind there is no reason why he can not build towards improving this year and creating a solid platform for next year as a final year Junior. 2 thousand miles on the road bike in winter/spring would also help, this is the amount guys ahead of him are doing.
Finally MBCC did an amazing job, i (as a spectator) could not see how you would need to improve, everything looked superb, Chapeau.
Finally on the art of racing, few do it better than Aidan McDonald, who in his mid forties has had a while to figure the art out, i have been watching his times and style for over 5 years now and no one on a regular basis gets more out of them selves. I was at the start of the climb yesterday and on each lap i seen him drink a full 500ml bottle, slowing down a little to do so, then get a new one in the feed zone. That and his exceptional feel for how hard to push meant that he finished a close 3rd, very close to the top 2. Look at his lap splits in the results, a coach’s dream!
Usual 5 miler, all welcome.
ok here we go the 2nd round of the IDMS went down in a new Venue for Downhill in Bunclody Co Wexford (there have been XC races there as well) on a track built by mad Welshman Gary Williams and his buddies, which mush have been tough going as the amount of rock moved to build that rock garden along is Crazy,
big man smashing the rock Garden in Practice
the track started just off a Fireroad where the tractors left you off, into a fast rooty straight in tight trees, few ninja high lines here but not much, then came feature no 1 go straight to drop off a rock spine with no Margin for error or go right over some rock slabs (much harder but safer option) after that pop out of the woods and into the open where first your faced with 2 steep rock roll’s which bring ya down to the first road where Cam Cornforth had opened up a few interesting lines (Cam, that’s a bush, CAM!) out of the bush, cross the road and into the big nasty rock garden where Richie won practice with the lotti holding the speed well except for the race run of course, out of that and a few tricky switchbacks with nasty rock gardens in between (anyone seeing a trend here?) cross the next road and your into a flat out section which pop’s you into another tricky rock line and off a small drop, catch for most was getting speed enough to get over it, trick for the fast lads who doubled up the rocks was squashing the drop to line up for the next huck over more rocks, pop into the final woods and around some sweet flat corners and cross the line, fastest time was 1.40 so was a good length for a 1st go, given time and work there could be one hell of a long track there.
what not to do on the rock Garden!!!!
Onto the racing where Jack Crowley kept his winning streak going in the U-14’s winning by 11 seconds on his TR 450, 2nd was Tommy O’Sullivan came 2nd, 3rd was Olly Cornforth on that HARDTAIL making it a 021 1,2,3
Luke Cornforth Boosting where everyone else was squashing
into the U-16’s where rd 1 winner Jacob Dickson had a bad smash during Sunday practice and hurt his shoulder/ribs but still picked himself up to get a time of 1.47, good time but not as good as Luke Cornforth who hucked his Kona all the way to 1st with a 1.44 in his race which was the 2nd fastest time OVERALL, Ben Kennedy came in with a 1.50 on his Nukeproof, these 3 lads are on it and will be intresting to watch over the next few years.
BOOOOM Connor Swaine's sunday fully squished
Next up the Vets where Joe Ward took the win on his shiney new Norco after receiving the wrong size twice in a week and only building the bike up saturday morning, 2nd went to Ian Mac on his Nukeproof and 3rd went to the track Builder Gary Williams, Poor Roger fell victim to the Residents bar and was suffering the consequences sunday, Pat Hurley came in 8th just behind Martin Crowley.
In the Masters the reign of the CRC lads looks to be broken with an Mark Tiernan taking a good win from a charging Nathan Hogg with Adam Tynan taking 3rd, of the Local lads Wesley crashed hard towards the end of saturday and messed up his knee, he did the race run to finish up in 22nd, Richie had a poor race run after winning practice again to end up in 19th, as for the other Cork lads, Kevin Healy finished up in 24th with Chris O’Callaghan taking a digger on is new Cube bike to end up in 25th, Alan Hickey finished up in 21st with Stephen Forest in 16th
Top 3 riders in masters after the race...
Brian Hanley Finished in 15th in Seniors with Colin O’Leary taking the win with a time of 1.48 that would have him on the podium in Elites….
speaking of which it was Greg Callaghan taking a convincing win with a time of 1.40 in both his seeding and race runs to win by 7seconds from Karl O’Sullivan who went on a MX spin after practice Saturday coz he wasn’t feeling it!!! 3rd place went to Christopher McGlinchy who’s on his way to some random race in Bulgaria this weekend on a solo mission!
Now for the scandal and messing, it was pretty scary to see how many riders were struggling with a track that was just above their level with crash’s everywhere on a track that ad no letup at all, serious opening for some proper DH coaching around the place, how big was Wesley’s Knee Saturday evening and how did he do the race and then DRIVE home? How cold was it Friday Night? Another big question was what tire to use after a deluge the whole week before the race, in the end it was back to the standard Minion/High roller after much chopping and changing and riders looking for spikes Saturday morning, James O’Carroll put it well with the comment, “I really Pity Anthony Cornforth’s wallet now” after Olly coming 3rd in his 1st race on a hardtail on one of the roughest tracks ever in this country, not to mention Luke with the 2nd fastest time of the day!
how NOT to do that drop!!!!! Rider Jordan Kelly Photo: Darren S Photosport
full results can be found here…
http://rokmor.webspace.virginmedia.com/results.htm
Next up in DH is rd 3 in Carrick on the 27th of May, but before that there is the small matter of the XC NPS in Tracton to get over….
Leaving from Drinagh @6.30
Usual 5 mile TT
All Welcome
Time trail tonight, 8kms
Leaving Drinagh @ 6.30pm
All welcome
well what can I say, 23km loop, 900M of descending (had to be climbed as well which wasn’t as much fun) and almost 10km of stages with the winner Joe Barnes clocking an average of 28km/hr on stage down one down XTC and Bench cut,
and your winner Joe Barnes
ok the stages… stage one XTC and Benchcut nice mix of flowey berms up top and tight switchbacks and a flattish finish, stage 2 completely fesh trail to start with where the dh skills came in on the loose off camber sections before the first fire road, cross that short stinker of a climb and into a super fast finish with some natural 20foot doubles if you were brave enough,
stage 3 got more “XC” ish with a lot more flat traverses and but had one super fast wide root section that had everyone grinning. Climb again and stop for lunch, and off to stage 4, after a flat start it dropped into a very old school DH section with lots of lines choice (not good if your racing it blind like I was) drop down a steep chute onto the fire road by the lunch area and huck into gran canaria which was just some class singletrack with a nice big drop off the left if ya got it wrong. Get out of there and cross the river and onto a very XC style section but the good kind of high off camber lines all over the place. Finish that stage and then came the hurt the Big long climb up the red road to stage 5
Jerome and Pierre Clementz with Nico Lau and Manu Bonne became known as ‘Team France’ on their first visit to Ireland.
stage 5 would make a top class DH track in its own right, after a traverse across for 2minutes the trail just plain dropped away into the oblivion, steep chutes with ninja lines everywhere which really tested the technical side of riding.
Now for the racing where the Dudes of Hazzard rider Joe Barnes stormed ahead winning the first 3 stages only for trans provence and Mega Avalanche winner Jerome Clementz making a late charge winning the final 2 stages but just missed out, Joe taking the win overall with a time of 20minutes 15seconds. The battle for 3rd and 4th was even closer with Nicolaus Lau riding for Cube bikes finishing on the same second with 21minutes 26seconds as Irish legend robin Seymore but because Nicolaus was faster on the final super tech stage he got the last podium place much to Robins disgust. 5th place went to Kona rider Alex stock.
chute onto road on stage 4 and some xc head decides to slide down it on his arse and Rich drop's in!!!!
As for the West Cork lads it was Wesley and Richard making the trek up and spent the day spinning round together, wesley took the win in that battle with a time of 29minutes 32seconds earning him 25th in the 30-34 class, Richard was just behind with 29min 51 seconds after blowing up in the last stage giving him 21st in the 16-29 class.
Now for the scandal, how many chains were broken, Rich snapped one before the 1st stage and Wesley 2 over the day, how did Hanley get around on his Dh bike, big sticky tires and all! How messy did the after party in Bray get with the crazy french and Scots fitting in well. Did Gav O’Connell get Jess Stone in the end (she did show up for the session in tracksuit pants tho) and who went for a swim after the club? How slick was the whole setup, Fair play to Niall it was a great event, what did the Frenchies make of Dave Carroll’s prize giving, was a special one. How funny was the end of the stages with people jumping to get the beep on the timer!!!
all I can say is if ye missed out, shame on ye it was Savage and bleedin Deadly at the same time,
full results can be found
and round 2 in Ticknock is going to fill up fast so get your entries in!!!!!
http://gravityenduro.ie/index.php/enter-now
and speakin of the prize giving here’s Dave in action
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjEPSY4YW6k
“AWESOME”
Well having built up my new steed its encouraged me to get out the last few Sunday
mornings and use the dam thing and to be fair the weather has been treating us well,
so well in fact that I’m writing my first post in God knows how long.
I got my On One Summer Season a few weeks ago after selling off my dh frame and
forks as cash is needed for other hobbies which are occupying my time, its bit of a
mash up of the remaining Dh parts and my single speed hardtail but its all good stuff
and I must say I’m loving it. I really hadn’t realised just how forgiving a steel frame can be after hearing about it time and time again, not that it made much differrence
on the single speed since you never get to sit down. Anyway heres a few poor quality
pics from clashna.
Ps. what lives down the pipe
IDMS Rd. 1 from Classy As on Vimeo.
2012 CRC iDMS Round 1 – Rostrevor from chainreactioncycles on Vimeo.
