Leinster League 1 – Bunclody, Wexford

The first round of the Irish Leinster League xc races was a chance to shock my system into intensity having done nothing since Spain. Changes to race categories in Ireland this year has made bigger ability based fields to help closer, more exciting racing and it seemed to work very well. I was up against Mel Spath who was sure to be fast after some recent tough racing in Cyprus, but we were also gridded with 25 fast cat 2 men.

The whistle went and we were off with Mel setting a fierce pace up a long fireroad climb so that I had to give everything to hold on. I knew she was trying to make me blow but its a catch 22 situation, if I lost her early on it would be game over so it was straight into the hurt locker – a lungs burning, donkey breathing, pain-fest and that was only after 2 minutes! I held on until the singletrack where I knew I could make up time but dealing with streams of aggressive guys and sliddery trails at the same time made it a difficult task. The day continued like that, kill myself to cling on climbing and slide down the hills as fast as possible to make up lost time. Feeling of Déjà vu here?!

The course was a proper technical Irish xc course, loads of singletrack with overnight rain making it super damp and sliddery. Steep sections and slippy rocks added to the challenge, as did avoiding all the people crashing in front of you, but it was so much fun (nice video of the carnage here). Every lap I pushed myself to go faster, sliding all over the place at high speed only made it easier. No brakes was optimal, drifting around corners and even jumping off drops – awesome!

I lost sight of Mel on lap 3 and started to drop off but found extra reserves in the final lap to try and catch a few guys and fight of others coming towards me from behind. Finishing with a mad uphill sprint to try and make up one more place added to the excitement. I was about 2 minutes back in the end but happy enough for the first race of the year, I got the system shock I was looking for (results are here). Definitely feeling better prepared than this time last year and some pain training in the next few weeks will get the real speed going. Next stop Sherwood Pines…

Thanks to everyone from Racing 795 for all the effort, brilliant course and really well organised event. Also thanks to all the Think Bike support crew and workshop mechanics for sorting my bike.

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