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My first UCI mountain bike world cup is finally here, and more importantly I’m here too, luckily contingency plans for travelling to the UK by ferry weren’t needed and I was able to fly last night. I was up at the course this morning in the sun for some training – its great fun but will also be very hard. Theres something of everything, super steep killer climbs, big technical drops, fast dusty singletrack, steep technical climbs. It was all a bit surreal for me going home to the world cup, riding around Dalby (one of the places I first mountain biked) behind all the famous world and Olympic champions. Awesome! The speed of some one the guys coming down the technical sections is insane, they’re pro for good reason.

Check out the race live on freecaster internet TV here.

And theres a good description of the course on cyclingnews.com

Sunday was the first round of the Irish NPS series, hosted by IMBRC in Slade Valley. The recent schizophrenic weather worked in our favour, making for an incredible days racing on dry, fast trails.

There was a good turnout for the elite female race, and we set off up a fireroad climb, and coming to the top I put in a burst of energy to get into the singletrack ahead of Ciara who was at the front, thinking this would give me a bit of control. Conditions made it very quick, but there were a few sly slippery roots to catch you out if you weren’t careful. Out of nowhere Mel came from behind and somehow managed to get past me and two junior riders in front in one manoeuvre. Before I knew it I was chasing but got stuck in behind the two lads. Eventually I managed to get by but she’d pulled quite a gap and I couldn’t quite get back. A bit annoying, I knew she was very strong and it’s much more difficult to keep up once you lose the wheel. I kept her in sights most of the first lap and people kept shouting that she was only round the corner so that spurred me on.

The heat was unbelievable, it felt like the Alps again, with sun beating down on dry dusty trails making it really hard work. I’m not complaining but I did start to feel a bit sick because of it at one stage! The course was great, a couple of longish steady climbs, a few steep kickers, and loads of fun singletrack (finally a race with descents!!). My legs felt ok, a bit tired warming up after a hard enough weeks training, but they seemed to respond once I got going. Although I couldn’t see Mel for the last few laps, I was able to have some good battles with some of the guys, there was always someone just in front or behind to making me keep pushing.

By the last lap there were loads of people blowing up, suffering in the heat and I managed to gain a few places. It actually felt quite short to me, could have done another lap (or maybe didn’t go hard enough?!). The finish was fun too, some guy from Cork riding behind me screaming at me to go faster (in an encouraging way I think), but I was determined not to let him by so pinned it through a tight, twisty up and down trail into the finish. I finished second, 2.5 minutes behind Mel so happy enough with that. Results here.

Thanks to IMBRC for all the hard work and a lot of people who gave up their own racing to help organise things, it really paid off! I’ve never ridden in Slade Valley before but have to go back, the trails are amazing. Brilliant riding followed by enjoying the sociable side to Irish races and catching up with friends in the sun left me buzzing all day! very hard to go home and concentrate on my dissertation

A trip to York for Easter last weekend coincided with the first Nutcracker race, a new mountain bike series in the North of England, so I made the most of a good opportunity for some hard training. I turned up expecting a bit of a local event, so was surprised to be lining up alongside Australian international rider Kate Potter as well British university champion and WXC teammate Jessie Roberts at the start of the elite race.

It was another flat course, not exactly what I wanted after last week, but maybe at least a chance to redeem myself slightly. We set off with the elite and expert men so the pace was fast enough. Kate took off in front of me and I set about following. Heavy rain the few days beforehand had made the course super muddy, there was a lot of nice singletrack twisting through woodland, but it had all turned into a big gloopy sticky mess. I wasn’t complaining too much though, all those winters of wet, muddy riding in Wicklow and the North York Moors stood me in good stead and I was able to gain time on the messy bits. I felt good and managed to keep within a few seconds of Kate for the first lap, she was quick on flat fireroads, but I was able to catch up on the singletrack.

I wanted to use the race as a bit of tactical practice too, go hard on the first lap, and then get some consistent laps leaving enough energy for a hard last lap. Kate upped the pace a bit on the second lap and I had to let her go, I knew I couldn’t maintain it for two hours and I was more interested in having a consistent run. My legs were feeling good though, full of energy compared to last week, and despite the lack of hills I was really enjoying myself. I concentrated on pushing hard and riding smoothly to escape one of the expert guys who was following close behind. My Moda rode really well despite tripling in weight by the end due to all the mud I’d gathered along the way. Into the last lap I had to dig deep to go as fast as I could, but I was having fun which made things much easier.

I finished in second, four minutes or so down, but it was the performance I was interested in rather than the result. After Sherwood I was beginning to seriously doubt myself and wondered what I’d been playing at all winter so it was a massive relief to feel strong and get my race buzz back, especially after a pretty hard week of training.

It was great to be able to race in Yorkshire, unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be around for the rest of the series, but I’d highly recommend it. Thanks very much to my parents chauffer service (lack of driving lessons at 17 was never my choice and is coming back to haunt you!), Eóin my technical coach and chief feed-zone supporter, and WXC. Tomorrow I’ll be ignoring the fact that my dissertation is due next week and racing the first round of the Irish NPS series, looking forward to it!

A couple of pics of my new bike, it even has my name on it. At home for Easter so took it up to Dalby Forest on Saturday to ride the world cup course – PDG! Lovely and light, handles really well and got me down some big rocky drops in one piece too. I was spying on the GB squad who were also training up there!

Over the winter I joined WXC race team in the UK, and outside of Ireland (where I’ll still represent UCD), I’ll be racing for them for this season. I’ve been meaning to write a post about it for ages but until I’d actually been over and seen it, it all seemed too good to be true! I’ve been given a lovely new carbon Moda bike, which I can leave in the UK between races. This is amazing, takes so much time, hassle and money out of getting to a race –no fixing parts and cleaning the week before, no flying with a bike, lugging heavy boxes around multiple modes of transport etc. All I have to do it jump on a plane and race.

At Sherwood I was collected from the airport and taken to the race venue. Given my new bike and a load of kit and equipment. After riding the course with my teammates I could hand my bike to a mechanic for checking and adjusting. In the mean time we went and did a photoshoot with Joolze for the website. On race day there was a tent to shelter under and people to help in the feed zone. All the things that can cause a lot of hassle and wasted energy normally were taken out of the equation. Absolutely awesome, felt like a real pro. Now better start riding like one…!

The mountain bike season finally got underway last weekend when I went over the Sherwood Forest for the first round of the British National Points Series (BNPS), a UCI C2 race. I knew a lot of people didn’t like the course, and it wouldn’t be best suited to me, being flat and technical but I was still really looking forward to it and dying to get back racing.

Pre-riding the day before confirmed it was as expected, a few small climbs, a lot of flattish stuff, and a couple of small descents, with very little in the way of technical stuff. There was a really strong field in the elite female race, the GB squad and several international riders, so I was keen to test myself.

I had a minor gear issue at the start and lost a few seconds, but as we got to the top of the first climb and into the singletrack I’d got up to the back of the lead group. Unfortunately the girl in front was pretty slow technically and there was no chance to pass for a while so we began to drop back. At the end of the first lap I was at the front of the second group, not too far away from the leaders.

From then onwards I don’t know exactly what was wrong but it just seemed incredibly hard and I was getting nowhere. My lap times got slower each time (I’m normally pretty consistent) and I got passed twice before the end but couldn’t do much to keep up. The course didn’t exactly inspire me, there were two enjoyable bits of singletrack on the whole thing – nice swoopy fast stuff, the rest all blurs together in my memory into a big painful, hardout slog. On the last lap my saddle started slipping down, and I kept having to stop and try to tighten in. The last straw I think, my head went a bit at that stage and I lost motivation to really push until the end.

Rubbish. So not exactly the start I’d been hoping for, hopefully just a bad day, a course with more hills and technical trails might help improve things. Failing that 7 weeks and counting until I can claim back my life from architecture college and train properly! I finished 10th so at least I got one valuable UCI point. Next stop, Yorkshire…

 

 

 

 

 

 

This post should be titled ‘training racing’ or ‘stupid racing’ depending on how you look at it.
It was the first round of the Irish women’s national league, so a separate race for the girls with a smaller bunch, making things totally different to the last couple of weeks (very lucky since there was carnage in the men’s, loads of crashes, ambulances, broken bones etc – nasty)

The starting pace seemed fairly slow and I found myself leading out the front in no time. Every so often people came by and I tuck back in, but I couldn’t help myself but get up there again – seems wrong not going really hard in a race!

Every time someone attacked I was straight onto their wheel, not wanting to miss the action. Not the best tactic for energy conservation, a lot of the time it was clear they were going nowhere so I was just doing little intervals for the sake of it (but it makes for a good workout which is why I was there!). Fortunately my legs were feeling ok and I could feel the benefit of the last couple of weeks racing with pedalling on the flat seeming much easier. I joined a couple of breakaway attempts, but they never lasted long and ended up being more wasted energy -the course was really flat and short and each time the group caught back on. I didn’t have the confidence to lead one myself since I’m still pretty clueless when it comes to tactics for these road things.

Into the third and fourth lap I began to realise who the stronger girls were and who to watch out for, so on the last lap I stepped off a bit and let other people work at the front. Then coming towards the end I tried to move up ready for the finish, but again enthusiasm got the better of me and I ended up at pushing along at the front. There was a tiny hill just before the finish and I was very tempted to attack, but didn’t think I could keep up a sprint for another flat kilometre after it, so I held off and waited for someone else to go. Then finish in sight someone sprinted from behind and all of a sudden a whole load of people poured past, I got boxed in and ended up down the bunch just outside of the prizes. Doh!

So definitely more tactics to learn, but I was doing it as training for ‘proper’ racing next weekend and in that sense it was good. Report and pictures on Irish Cycling here. I have to say I was almost won over by road racing, a separate women’s race was much more eventful, almost exciting even. Quick get me to a mountain bike race….!

As part of my training building up to the start of the mountain bike season in a few weeks time I’m scheduled to do a few road races. So rather than make the most of dry trails, amazing blue sky and sunshine on the mtb, I headed to the Cycleways Cup in Navan with Richie to find out what all the fuss is about. We couldn’t believe the number of people, the team cars, sponsors and pro bikes – you don’t get that at a mountain bike race here. I was in the A3 category, the second group off. I don’t know how many started exactly but I’d say well over 100.

The start is very different to mtb, the huge bunch just sets off and the pace doesn’t pick up for a few minutes. Unfortunately I started towards the back and the road was so jammed full of bikes it was impossible to move up, I had to concentrate hard as there are only millimetres between each wheel so you need your wits about you. The pace was fairly fast but nothing too crazy, a few little accelerations out of corners or up small hills where you have to work hard, but then it tails off and you can recover. We cruised along for a while and then all of a sudden the group was split and I found myself in the second pack having missed the break – how did that happen?! Lesson number one, get near to the front at the start or very soon afterwards.

I was riding along in a group of maybe 15 or 20 but every so often I’d look around and realise we’d lost a few, or else we’d pick up more people dropped from the front pack. After a while it settled down so we were a group of 8 or 9 working together. There were a couple of more experienced guys bossing people around, telling you off for going too fast at the front, not keeping the flow going and that sort of thing. I definitely felt like an inexperienced mountain biker at a road race and it took a while to learn how it all works (I wasn’t the only one, there were Worc and Rocky Mountain riders getting shouted at more than me!).

The group got smaller with a load of people dropping out at the end of the first lap, but then we were caught from behind by the A4 pack and it was like a new race. This time I had a bit more of an idea of the tactics and what was going on, and got in a position towards the front half of the bunch. The pace wasn’t too hard at all, slower than the beginning, so as we approached the last few km I was watching out for a break, determined to be part of it this time. A couple of people tried to make a dash but were quickly reeled in, so in the end we more or less cruised all the way in until the finish was in close sights, then there was a big mad sprint to get there first. That was actually the most enjoyable part of the whole thing, I made up a load of places and crossed the line about 6th in the group. Picture here.

So an experience of inexperience I think! I have to say I’d chose mountain biking first any day, the buzzing feeling after the race wasn’t there at all. It’s so much more about tactics and timing rather than pushing your own limits and technical skills. In fact I felt really fresh at the end, but maybe that would have been different if I stuck to the A3 group. I probably will do more for the training and to prove to myself that I can make the break, but I really, really can’t wait for the mountain bike season to start! 3 weeks to go…

After managing to avoid it all year I finally gave in to cyclocross on Sunday and took part in the Irish national championship race in St Annes park. I raced there last year and really enjoyed the course, and after months away from the race scene I was beginning to miss it so thought it would be good to give it a go. You have to have a special bike for these things and Darragh Maloney was kind enough to lend me his brand new crossbike for the day.

I rode a couple of laps to get used to the bike before joining a chaotic bunch of 50 or so riders all trying to get into a good start position. Unfortunately there was only myself and Fran Mehan in the female race so it didn’t count as a national championships and we had to start at the back of the men’s pack. The first few minutes were mental, some very dirty tactics going on as the big bunch tried to squeeze down a very narrow track. I got cut off by people cutting the first corner and saw someone literally push a guy off the course to get into a narrow tunnel first.

Somehow in all the chaos I managed to keep my eye on Fran who was just ahead of me. The course was brilliant, faster than last year with less bits to run (suits me, my run-bike transitions weren’t the slickest!). There was loads of singletrack that was slightly muddy making it more fun, drifting corners on skinny tyres and cantilever brakes really pushes the limits of control. As riders began to string out I got onto Fran’s wheel and managed to skip ahead at one point. It was hard, I’ve done no anaerobic training since September and you really have to push all the time to keep the pace going.
For the next few laps there was only seconds between us, Fran got ahead on the second lap so for me it was a case of trying to stick to her back wheel. My front brake was really really noisy so there was no chance of sneaking up behind her! By lap four she had pulled away a bit and though I still had her in my sights, I was struggling to keep the pace going and getting a bit sloppy with getting on and off the bike. Coming into the last lap Fran came off on a slippery corner and I thought I might still have chance to catch her. I put my head down and managed to close the gap a bit, but couldn’t quite do enough to fight back. It’s all about the split seconds and there was 30 seconds between us in the end. Full results and photos are here.

After years of slagging it I really enjoyed the race, I might have to try and get my own bike for next year so that I can do more! Apart from anything it’s a great training workout and it definitely showed me a few things I need to work on before the start of the mountain bike season. Thanks very much to Darragh for loan of the bike (especially for cleaning it after!!) and to Greg May/DCU for organising a great event.

Had a couple of dodgy training spins recently starting with an incident with a car. Having survived 3 hours of ‘dangerous’ mountain biking I was coming home through Dundrum and a guy decided to turn left without looking sending me over the bars and almost onto the bonnet of another car! I was very lucky, managed to avoid full impact and somehow landed on my feet. Drivers on their way to go shopping seem to leave their brains at home.

Then last weekend I hit a patch of black ice on the road heading toward Glencree youth hostel. One second I was riding along happily, next thing, wham…slamming onto the ground and skidding along the road. I landed right on my coccyx which is a pretty painful place to hit. The next day i was walking round like a cripple so instead of my normal gym session I went into the sports centre in UCD for ice bath intervals. It was unbelievable, 30 seconds of hot shower followed by 30 seconds in a huge tub of cold water and ice cubes x3. Pretty nasty getting into the bath but afterwards you feel incredible and my back was considerably less stiff. I’ll be back for more, its great for easing tired legs and speeding up recovery too.

Now no more procrastinating, back to my dissertation…