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That’s it done, no more training, no more racing – well for a few weeks at least. The final round of K Capital Challenge in Kippure on Sunday was the last xc race of the year. I had given up serious training after Plymouth the weekend before and switched into off-season mode of fun night rides and taking UCD beginner spins at a leisurely pace. So I thought I’d be interesting to see how much difference proper race preparation makes – seems it does have an effect, i felt like I was struggling all day!

Over 100 people lined up for a mass start from Kippure House, neutralised for the first km or so as we made our way up the road in a big pack –don’t think I’d like road racing, scary! As we hit a fireroad climb the race started and the pace jumped up. I was in a good position towards the front, and kept it up as we hit a cool new singletrack descent through some forest. We bombed down a rutted grass track with was a sharp corner at the bottom, I tried to take a sneaky inside line not realising it was a huge hole covered in grass. My front wheel plunged in, bike catapulted and I went over the bars. Managed not to hurt myself too much and jumped back on with blood dribbling down my knee!

There were several nice long climbs that normally I’d enjoy, but my legs weren’t really feeling it for some reason, so I was surprised to find myself fairly well up in the group. The trails made up for it though, really enjoyed loads of great, technical stuff with a slightly wintery feel to the day and a return to the usual mud after a few dry weeks. There was a nice mixture of natural trails across open moorland and tight singletrack through the woods.

I was doing my best to stick to a couple of the Rocky Mountain guys all the way through, and coming to the top of the last nasty long fireroad climb I still had one of t their jerseys in sight. By this stage we’d caught up with a load of riders doing the short course and a guy fell off right in front of me as we went down one of the last descents. I had to wait to get past, loosing a place, and then in my haste to catch up I followed someone else in the wrong direction and lost another spot. Doh! So a couple more ridably muddy, rooty descents later and I rolled into the finish in 13th (1st female) – not too bad all things considered. Full results are here.

A big thanks to Robin, Luke and Team Worc for all the effort that went into building the course – another fun place to head back to for a spin some day.

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Round 2 of the K Capital Challenge took place at Carrick Mountain – an area of Wicklow previously unexplored by most mountain bikers. As usual Team Worc put on a great event with some serious work gone into trail building and putting the course together. A terrible weather forecast and muddy trails didn’t seem to put people off, with over 100 riders entered for a single lap, 30km race.

We flew off at the start straight into a long fireroad climb with everyone fighting to get into a good position. I was surprised to be feeling pretty good having felt tired the last few days, and began moving up the group as we went. On the first half of the course there were a few nice bits of singletrack but each seemed to end by turning into a long climb. Overnight rain had made the trails really wet and muddy meaning lots of sliding around, but overall the course held up very well and was all rideable. Not having ridden any of it before added an extra element of fun – flying down slippery descents having no clue what was coming up around the next corner!

It was difficult to know how to pace yourself without knowing much about the route, but at least I had my Garmin so I knew the distance remaining – or so I thought! For much of the race I was in a group of 3 or 4 others making it easier to battle the strong wind. Having got most of the climbing out of the way, we hit some really fun technical singletrack across moorland and twisting through the forest. I was pleased to be keeping up with the guys but eventually dropped off the back with both sets of brake pads wore down to the metal. You’d think having no brakes would make you faster but actually it made going slow pretty scary! As the course twisted steeply down through the trees, super slippery mud and no stopping ability meant I had several near misses with trees – dodgy! (even more dodgy riding home across the city centre without brakes!)

I was a bit surprised to come round into the start area after 25km but presumed there must be another loop to do. Unfortunately not! Turns out the course had been cut short due to weather – it was really annoying, I’d have gone a lot faster if I’d have known, I was geared up for a long steady race and was still really enjoying myself! I won the Ladies category and placed 18th overall (results here).

So the course not being long enough was my only complaint but that’s definitely a good sign. It was funny seeing everyone afterwards almost unrecognisable covered from head to toe in mud. Luckily there was a conveniently located stream to jump in and clean off for both bikes and people, followed by lots of hot tea and sandwiches. You’d think it was winter.

Thanks to Robin and Team Worc for another great days racing. I’ll definitely be heading back to the area for another go on those trails!

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Sunday was the first of a series of 3 ‘challenge’ races run by Team WORC, with an emphasis on fun mountain bike racing and great trails. The race took place at Kilruddery Estate just outside Dublin – a place with some really cool trails that’s normally off limits for bikes. After last week I was looking forward to a less serious race and enjoying some real mtb trails.

180 riders lined up in a chaotic mass start for 2 laps of a 17km course. I was fairly near the front and after a small bottle neck was able to ride the first singletrack section without too much hassle. Although the weather was quite good, really heavy rain overnight meant most of the trails were super muddy. After 6 months of dry trails I was worried I’d have forgotten how to ride mud, but I was loving it, out of control bike surfing at its best! No brakes and hoping to slide in the right direction seemed the only option.

A 10 minute fireroad climb began to spread the field out a bit and I set about making up a few places. My legs were feeling strong and since I was ahead of the other girls I thought I’d try to increase the gap. A new long descent down from the little sugarloaf was great, fast and rocky then into slippery steep switchbacks. After this were long sections of fun singletrack twisting through the forest with a few short fireroad climbs. It was really cool, a bit of an interval session, sometimes flat out racing but other times more like a fast social spin since you were constantly surrounded by other riders and bottlenecks made it hard to go fast at times.

I found the descents easier to ride on the second lap since I wasn’t doing them blind, but the mud got worse with the trails suffering from so many riders churning them up. I was riding with Sean Downey much of the lap, sharing work on the windy climbs. Halfway round bike problems started to slow me down a lot – the case for lot of people due to the conditions.

Mud!

I got myself a nice trophy, finishing in 2hrs 27 minutes, 1st female and 27th overall. The whole event was very well run with a great atmosphere, great trails and a reminder of all the enjoyable aspects to racing in Ireland. Afterwards it was good to catch up with loads of people I haven’t seen in ages. Thanks to all the organisers, looking forward to the next one!

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