Irish NPS 1 – Slade Valley

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

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