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Gravity Enduro – Djouce, Ireland

Cait — Sat, 09 Aug 2014 17:54:24 +0000

This year’s Irish Enduro National Championships took place in one of my favourite places to ride in the world and was well timed with a Swiss bank holiday so perfect for a trip back. Djouce woods just outside Dublin, is an absolute singletrack paradise with the occasional stunning view of Powerscourt waterfall, the Wicklow mountains and the sea. Niall and the Biking.ie crew put on a great show with the course taking in all of the best trails that I haven’t ridden for 2 years as well as some brilliant new stuff.

For weeks prior to the race the sun has been beaming in Ireland and on Thursday and Friday I had a great time after escaping wet Switzerland to ride some uncharacteristic dust (too much so, a mad thursday night adventure left my legs still tired on race day!). The dust didn’t last long and two months worth of rain fell on Saturday and Sunday making the tracks unrecognisable with any carefully chosen lines turning into sloppy thick mud. Deadly!

Sunday Race Day – 6 Stages, 30km, 1000m descent

The stages were relatively short (4-6 minutes) and generally less physical than you would get over in Europe but that didn’t make them any easier. Each time there were tons of wet roots, slippery mud, off camber narrow trails, steep drops and switchback corners compacted into the stage so you had to be fully on it to ride well. It took some getting used to the wet trails and the first couple of stages felt slow and static, I kept hitting the wrong lines, had a little wipeout crash and found it hard to judge how much speed you could get away with. It didn’t stop the enjoyment though, racing down Djouce classics like XTC and GC, trails I’ve only raced on an xc hardtail, was amazing!
With on and off rain all day the trails were getting increasingly sloppy and as we headed up the long climb to stage 5, the longest and steepest of the day, we were getting horror stories from guys who’d just come down it – “you’re gonna die up there”, “it’s mental, you just have to slide, the trail has disappeared!”, encouraging stuff. The top section was epic, downhill but slightly pedally trail crossing a section of felled trees, there was a constant mesh of greasy exposed roots mixed in with a thick layer of sloppy mud. My Enduro 29er was the absolute business on this and despite the greasiness I had tons of grip and loved sliding around at high speed. After dropping into the forest the trail got steeper and the disadvantage of not being seeded became apparent with the muddy trail having been totally cut up by a hundred people riding it. Things got pretty sketchy and out of control! at the steepest point I had to let 2 downhillers past only to get stuck behind as they crashed at the bottom when a wooden bridge across a stream had been dislodged from position and disappeared under the mud! after that it was more sloshing around with some leg sapping pedaling through the soft mud to the end. Exhausting but an awesome stage!

I was delighted to finish 3rd with unstoppable junior Leah Maunsell taking the win in style, results here. So you can stick your Alps, Ireland is the place to ride bikes. I wish I could get back to more races, the atmosphere was brilliant, the trails deadly and it was great to catch up with everyone. The mtb scene is booming, with that weather in Switzerland nobody would have turned up but this race was sold out and nobody gave a shite about the rain!

Big thanks to Think Bike in Rathmines for sorting my brakes out at the last minute and Velo Elsener who are gonna have to deal with the mud damage to the bike! Photos robbed from Action Pictures Ireland, Cycle Action Photography, and Adrian Van der Lee.

Irish Marathon National Championships

Cait — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 18:47:05 +0000

I don’t want to write this blog post.

The Irish marathon champs were on Sunday run by MBCC at the Ballyhoura trail centre. I really enjoyed this race last year and the course was similar again, a mixture of man-made trail centre and muddy, rocky natural riding (though slightly less natural stuff this time). I didn’t specifically prepare for the race and not having done many long spins recently I was hoping a good winter base might drag me. I was wrong.

We started into a longish climb and I set a good but comfortable pace with Ciara McManus on my wheel. We were mixed in with the guys and for the first half hour or so it was incredibly frustrating getting stuck behind slow riders every time we turned into a singletrack, the trails are very narrow with no chance to pass people and I lost any descending advantage I had. Eventually I put in an effort to get ahead of a few people on a climb so that the descents could be ridden properly. Although not particularly technical some of the manmade stuff was actually great fun and I was feeling quick when I did get a clear run at it, lots of pumping sections, little jumps and bermed corners to skid around.

photo credit: Cieran Maunsell

Ciara was looking pretty strong on the climbs, making up the time I gained on the descents, so we were riding together much of the time. Initially I wasn’t too concerned, thinking I’d be better off keeping steady early on and attacking towards the end. Around two hours in she put in an attack on one of the climbs and got a decent gap, I was starting to suffer. At the top was a long, very muddy and slippery downhill section which was definitely my favourite part of the course – I pinned it all the way down, scaring the life out of myself totally off the brakes to make up 500m in a few seconds, awesome! The then next hill came and I was gone. I’d already started to get twinges of cramp and now my legs just gave in. My head soon followed and the final 25km of the race was one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had on a bike both physically and mentally. I felt like I’d lost my racing personality, I had no fight in me, I wasn’t even enjoying the descents never mind the climbs. I got dropped by Ciara and the group of guys we’d been around until then, and passed by others from behind. Stuck out on my own crawling along like a snail, it started to drizzle, there were some horrible strong headwinds, it was wet and muddy and I just didn’t want to be there. Not great.

Congratulations to Ciara, great ride. Thanks to MBCC for a very well run and event on a good course. Thanks to Think Bike for the bike service and lift down.

I’ll be back.

Irish xc National Championships – Kilruddery

Cait — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 13:33:13 +0000

photo credit: Andrew Lowry

This year’s National Championships run by Robin Seymour and Team Worc really showed Ireland’s potential as a world class mountain biking venue. The race took place at Killrudery Estate in Wicklow, a place that is normally off limits to bikes, with the Little Sugarloaf mountain forming a spectacular backdrop. The course was incredible, full of tight twisty singletrack through the woods, wall rides, technical rocky sections, and since we managed to escape the worst of the rain it was almost bone dry and even dusty. The atmosphere, familiar friendly faces and hassle free travelling makes racing in Ireland one of the most enjoyable experiences ever.

To win the National Champion title you have to be Irish, but this year’s race was made more interesting as we acquired a stray German (Mel Spath!) who was able to compete but not eligible to win the Irish jersey. Winning the jersey was my main priority but I was also looking forward to the additional task of trying to win the race overall.

photo credit: Cieran Maunsell

As we set off across the start field Junior Claire Oakely (WXC UK) shot off like a bullet and led for the first part of the course. I jumped into second before we hit the singletrack, concentrating on riding smoothly on the tight corners rather than getting sucked into chasing Claire. I eventually got ahead on a climb and saw Mel (Cycleways) not far behind. Despite the course having very little climbing, there were several short but steep power climbs which are normally not too my liking at all, but I was feeling strangely strong on them – the feeling of good power in your legs as you jump out of the saddle to attack a steep section is hard to beat! In fact the first lap was amazing, everything was so smooth and I felt like I was only cruising but seemed to be flying pulling a bit of a gap on Mel, great. The last part of the lap was flat and fast though and I knew that was where I was in danger of losing time to Mel and sure enough she wasn’t far behind. I lost a few seconds stopping at the feedzone to straighten my saddle which had been driving me crazy since I knocked it into a funny angle early in the lap, but stayed in the lead.

photo credit: VC Glendale

Although on first look the course didn’t seem hugely technical it took a lot of skill to ride smoothly and carry speed through the corners to save wasting effort. There were however a few tricky rocky sections mostly positioned at the top of the steep climbs to catch you at your tiredest. On one of these I dabbed and somehow spun my bike 360 degrees (luckily jumping off in time!) giving Mel a bit more chance to close the gap. Back on and re-composed I was having a great time, flying down the bomb hole at full pelt, skidding around dusty corners and hammering the little kickers. Then on the final wooded singletrack of the lap I dropped my chain and when I hopped off to put it back on Mel jumped in front. Bad timing too as it was just before the flat fast section. She had 20 seconds on me but I held on so that it wasn’t increased as we went into lap 3, though I lost another few seconds with more seat straightening at the tech zone.

photo credit: St John Walsh

For most of the next lap she was just in front and the cheers of encouragement from spectators telling me there was only 30 seconds gap helped to keep fighting. The gap increased a bit more on the flat section towards the end of the lap so that although not far ahead Mel was mostly out of sight. I went into the final lap hoping to give it one last shot at closing the gap but looking back I’m not sure how committed I was to this idea – I was riding hard but I should have been utterly burying myself and didn’t for some reason. In the end I was a minute back and felt like the race was too short and there should have been another lap – frustrating, maybe I could have gone harder on the last lap (easier said with hindsight) and without all my faff stops it could have been different.

photo credit: VC Glendale

Fantastic race, great course, great atmosphere and organisation. 2nd in the race but a consolation prize of my 4th National Champion jersey makes things a little bit better (results here). A get out of jail free card but I’ll have to get my finger out and step up a gear if I want it again next year since Mel will fully turned Irish by then and eligible for the jersey! training started this morning.

photo credit: Cieran Maunsell

A huge thank you to Team Worc and everyone involved in course building and race organisiation. Kilruddery is one of the best race venues in the world and it was a super professional event. Thanks to the Think Bike support crew for the pro tech zone assistance and pre-race bike tuning. Thanks to Stewart Carr and Carrie for miracle massages over the last few weeks, nearly there! Also thanks to all the spectators out on the course, most of the time I had no idea who it was shouting my name but the cheers of encouragement make so much difference.

photo credit Martin Grimley

Next up: Lining up with the world’s best at theOlympic Test event at Hadleigh Farm in 2 weeks!

photo credit: Chainreaction cycles

photo credit: MikeArmstrong

photo credit: Cieran Maunsell

National Championships

Cait — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 11:18:13 +0000

This weekend I had the challenge of defending my National Champion title in my first Irish race of the year. I was looking forward to getting back to the friendly race scene here and riding a new course at Dunmore Mountain.

There were no pre-rides the day before so I headed up early to get in a practice lap on the morning. The course was cool but really tough. 100% singletrack, much of it on thick grass with a few schlompy patches to power through and lots of sharp rocks. It was full of short, steep kickers with 2 slightly longer steep, rocky climbs each followed by some nice descents. There were a couple of steepish, rocky chutes but overall nothing super technical.

Ready to go

I had a good warm-up but a 10 minute delay at the start left meant I’d really cooled down and struggled to get going for the first few minutes. The ladies race became an open championship, a combination of the Elite and Masters category – a great idea to make sure we had a competitive race despite the low numbers competing. Four of us lined up at the start, with masters rider Beth McClusky posing my main threat.

We started with Ciara McManus going off like a rocket and getting ahead to set a ferocious pace. I managed to hold on to her and sneaked ahead a few minutes in as she slid out on an off camber section. Beth was right on my back wheel and later pulled ahead on one of the short climbs. I had to really go flat out to hold her within easy sight for the next two laps. I had my work cut out, she was flying up the climbs but I found myself lacking power and struggling to keep up – give me a long, steady climb any day!

On lap 3 Beth began to pull away, I totally blew up, just couldn’t keep the pace up and dropped nearly a minute on lap time. The course was so intense, there was no chance to recover at all, straight from a hard climb into a fast, physical decent and then repeat! Getting chance to drink was nearly impossible.

On the 4th lap I really dug deep, trying to find some extra energy so that I could work back and raced the Masters men to help keep pushing. No matter how hard I tried I just couldn’t go any faster. With no sign of Beth in front of me and I began to realise there would be little chance to catch her but kept going just in case. By the last lap I nearly had to give up braking as I was getting finger cramps every time I pulled the levers and was pretty happy to cross the line just before a torrential downpour began. I finished in second place, 2.5 minutes down (full results here).

Rain drenched presentations

So a bit of a frustrating and disappointing day, although I was going ok, I know that I haven’t hitting the best form recently, I think all the racing in June is still taking its toll. I would have loved to win, but congratulations to Beth, she was really strong on the day. I certainly enjoyed having such a hard, close fought race and it’s another experience to learn from.

Thanks to UCD, Met and Think Bike for their support and to Dromara CC for the organising and a great course.