Ulster League – Castlewellan

There hasn’t been a race in Castlewellan for a couple of years, so when I heard there was to be one as part of the Ulster League there was no question about heading up for some fun training. The course is tough, but it’s probably my all time favourite places to race, and a few changes meant it was even better than previously.

I lined up with Ciara McManus and Val O’Neil, and setting off up a fireroad climb at the start I had to be careful not to get too sucked in to the pace of the fast juniors in front – there was a lot of tough climbing in the first half of the lap. At the top of a new technical singletrack climb Ciara was still pretty close to me and I was having to work a bit to stay ahead. I tried to figure out if I was faster on descents or climbs so that I could plan an attack, but each time I stepped it up she’d appear not far behind so I decided to opt for a consistent pace and hope to burn her off over time.

Into the 2nd lap I’d opened a bit of a gap and she seemed to be dropping back so I took the chance to put in some effort and get out of sight in the long singletrack. Once you’d got up the pretty horrible big climb, the course was soooo much fun to ride. Tight switch-backing trails, with damp ground that was surprisingly grippy so you could really fling the bike around the fast corners. There were a couple of rocky sections that required some concentration, and a few rocky, rooty kicker climbs that filled the legs with lactic.

Into lap 3 and I couldn’t see Ciara behind me anymore so stepped off the gas a bit (mistake no1), my legs were a bit tired from 2 weeks of hardcore fun mountain biking following the nationals! I was busy chasing some of the guys until disaster struck – tried to change gear and my chain snapped. I managed to calm myself a bit after an initial feeling of panic and got the links sorted to fit a powerlink. I was fiddling for ages but couldn’t get the thing to close, my spare link was bent. Ciara came flying past and there was nothing I could do. There was no way I was dnf-ing so eventually I set off to run back to the tech zone (a long way!) until Oscar kindly gave me a link and I finally managed to fix it. According to my garmin I was stopped for over 9 minutes – ridiculous!!

Straight into a climb I put my head down and pedalled like hell to try and get back to Ciara, chances were slim, she was minutes ahead by that stage and there was only one lap left, but I had to try. It was so hard to get going again, out on my own with legs like lead and burning with lactic. On lap 4, reaching the top of the big climb for the last time I’d caught a few junior and expert riders but still no sight of Ciara and I realised it was probably game over. I tried to use the descents to make up lost time, hitting them like a maniac and pushing my limits technically. I might have lost the race, but it made the racing much more fun to be on such a mission. The last part of the course was brilliant, a very fast descent with a few rocks and drops, with wet mud making it pretty scary when you hit it flat out, followed by a worldcup style trail that swooped down through the woods over a couple of rocky walls into the finish.

So lessons learnt, prepare properly, check equipment works and maintain my bike – I knew the chain was worn but didn’t have a new cassette to put on so thought I’d get away with it. Also good to practice fixing things under pressure and having to work hard after a mechanical. I’m just glad it didn’t happen in an important race! Full results are here. Thanks to Xmtb for a great race, in the end the result didn’t matter, it was all about the trails and I could ride them all day – did another lap afterwards for the fun of it!

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