Howdi y'all
The 14 and 15 of august was the date for the irish downhill national championships. Held by the chain reaction crew, it was in the classic location of Kilbroney national park just outside Rostrevor. For me, the weekend started off early on Friday morning as i drove up to the venue, hoping to setup my pits and get a few sneaky practice runs in before the masses arrived on saturdday morning. As usual with this location, we had a private field for our pits, which, along with the awesome weather we had for the weekend, lead to an awesome atmosphere all weekend. the track was dusty dry and the sun shone all weekend.
keepin 'er low into the field, i wanted to get back on the gas!!!
The track itself was a mix of very technical rocky sections and a few sections which required outright pedal power. It was an unforgiving track, where a small mistake could cost a lot of time, and a crash could have been punished severly, there was lots of pointy rocks waiting to claim you...
the final jump in the field was an awesome addition!!!!
Friday came and went, I got a few runs of the track in and felt like i knew it pretty well by the end of the day. Saturday arrived and after a horrendous nights sleep in the back of a slanty van, I got a few runs in. The track, for the most part didnt change much, and by the time for seeding run I was pretty happy. A long wait for my seeding run (due to a massive entry of 240 riders) left me feeling like I hadnt ridden my bike at all, and after pushing too hard the entire way down the hill, I crossed the line in a time of 2.28. I set myself a target for the race run of 2.20 flat after being a bit dissapointed by my seeding run.
flat out, right to the line!!!
Sunday morning came and after a better nights sleep I got 3 practice runs in. I felt a lot better in these runs, just more relaxed and flowy...so I was pretty sure I could go a lot faster today. After a bit of a disaster in the uplift van (we had to reverse the entire length of the fire road due to a lack of batteries in the walkie talkies) we got to the start line on time, just. After a good run, I crossed the line with a time of 2.21. I was deffinately relieved to put down a good time, but then saw a raft of riders beat me by almost nothing at all!!! In the end i ended up in 16th spot with a total of 31 elite riders and 240 riders in total.
a really good video of the event can be seen here, its worth a look.
So, i think thats the race season pretty much wrapped up for another year, im already feeling withdrawl symptoms!!! Ive begun to dig a pump track pretty much in my back garden, with another weeks digging, it should be rideable.....hopefully, ill put up a few pics as soon as its done.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNpLtqhJBGM if your not sure what a pump track is have a look at the video, mine wont have the commentator, or the crowds, or the cameras, or the............. but it should be a pretty good way of keepin sharp!!!
oh yeah, one last thing, the EPIC Blast....i think its on the 19th of september.......keep an eye on epicmtb.com for it, its rated as the best event of the year in ireland, a mass start mountain bike event where anything goes....not XC and not DH, but gaurenteed fun and chaos....DO NOT MISS IT!
adios, Nigel
give'r