NPS Union Wood 2017

Harry came 3rd and I was officially third. Not sure about Max but he was moving well when I saw him.


A great course that was much improved on last year through the inclusion of a few short single tracks. The weather was relatively kind to the S3 and s2s with the rain largely holding off but it began to pour as the S1s went into their final lap making it a far more tricky course.


A small enough turnout.

I had a great race with Paul D (WORC) but managed to get away from him and the chasing pack half way through lap 2. I pushed on and built a nice lead with I proceeded to blow by coming off the bike twice on the last lap. Lesson learnt, there's a time to push and a time to consolidate.

I had to push hard (huge thanks to Trevor Byrne for the immense encouragement ) up the hill to the finish where I clawed back a place to finish 3rd today and 3rd for the series. Not what I was hoping for but I learnt more this season about training, how I like to race and racing in general that I can take into future races).

See ye all at the nationals :-)
Today was always going to be about the top pointy end of the league table.Those who had no series places to chase where never going to travel such a long distance.

Well done to every rider who made the effort to race in Sligo today!!
Some great results on a very demanding course, and the rain certainly doesn't help!

As Micky says, it's only those at the top of the league tables who would make the long journey west...

Plenty of battles to come at the XC Nats...
Great race. I disagree that only the top riders would travel. You get spoiled with such a small island and think 2,5 drive is a long journey to travel to an event. It's not! Driving to south of UK for an NPS is a long journey.
If you're into XC and want to see it kept alive you should be supporting those (only) 5 events on the calendar. And we only had Cork and Sligo to travel to, rest was in Dublin pretty much.
Get on with it!

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Originally posted by Max Power View Post
I disagree that only the top riders would travel.
That's what did happen though, only the top of the podium travelled....
Well done dave, young harry, Hannah, bren, max and Maurice on your results. Always a well run event in Sligo.
Hannah was happy with her day out, got a good gap on Faith Robinson and was looking good for second (Faith has had the better of her in the other rounds) but she had a spill and jammed her brakes, Faith caught and passed her, H got back to her and they had a right old battle with Faith getting it by half a wheel, they are great chums and are having fun!

Darragh had a bad start, got left behind a bit, chased hard, passed a fair few kids and ended up 4th I think, just catching no young Callum who will be U8 again next year. The 3rd lad had a good gap and 1 & 2 a fair bit to spare, Darragh is happy out, though the lack of automatic medals is dawning on him... I caught him flicking through Chris Carmichael's training guide last night sussing out some useful intervals ...

Thanks to the organisers for have no the kids races, hopefully the kids will stick with it and have fun.