Ok here is mine:
The course
All beautifully dry, started with a long fireroad which had a nice moderate gradient so it didn't feel to hard and you could get up it with a decent speed (big ring sort of way). Then a fast quick desent followed by a steep kicker into the forest on the other side of the river valley.
The first forest section had more roots than the tree of life, it felt like riding over some prehistoric spaghetti! Once you rode out of that there was a lovely flowy singlerack section until climbing started again. Now this was the hardest part of the course with steep switchbacks and a long drag over a very rough terrain, it was very difficult to get any speed on that stuff. The over the bridge and onto the other bank of the river again. More climbing followed by some nice downhill open section. And into the forest again which had loads of roots and small but stinging kickers. Finally, once you got to the top, one of the best downhill bits of trail I've ever ridden started. Quite similar to Toro but faster with loads of jumpy humps and stuff. The finale was a cool drop onto the fireroad and back into start/finish area.
The race
The S1 field was small so there was no worries about traffic and overtaking. We all started together bar one rider (who I've never seen before) that took off like a mad thing and sprinted away. Well, needless to say, that didn't last long! I think everybody went by him before we got into the single track. Robin, Gareth, Mark, Alfie and Ciaran got into the singletrack in front of me. Somewhere down the singletrack beside the river Ciaran had a mechanical and I continued to chase Alfie. I knew I had to put some time into Alfie on the 1st lap before he would have a chance to get his racing mojo, I knew that he would be catching me on the techy stuff! So I made an overtaking maneuver on the rocky switchbacks and broke my bollox to get away (successfully). On lap 2 Aidan went by me at half lap mark like a rocket and I had no chance of staying with him so I focused on holding Alfie off my back as I had a feeling he was closing on my on lap 3. Luckily for me he punctured. At this point I was a bit lonely as Vinnie was miles behind, I could see Stuart Galloway and the MBCC lad closing on me a bit (S2) and David Montgomery (Junior) went by me, he broke his chain later and I managed to hold off the S2 field. Lap 5 was just a formality really, I tried to enjoy it... in a sick way.
Drank 1 full bottle of water and had a gel on Lap 3. It was one of the hardest course I've ridden, next year I'll be back but on a full-sus!
The organisation
Flawless, nothing to say really. Well done MBCC, quite an improvement from last year! The soup and the Porsches were a nice touch too!
And you proved (as others club did as well) that you don't need a fancy timing system to have reliable results!
Well done to everyone that made an effort to get down there, and to all the podiumers (ladies and Bob)
Strava:
http://app.strava.com/rides/8461024
The course
All beautifully dry, started with a long fireroad which had a nice moderate gradient so it didn't feel to hard and you could get up it with a decent speed (big ring sort of way). Then a fast quick desent followed by a steep kicker into the forest on the other side of the river valley.
The first forest section had more roots than the tree of life, it felt like riding over some prehistoric spaghetti! Once you rode out of that there was a lovely flowy singlerack section until climbing started again. Now this was the hardest part of the course with steep switchbacks and a long drag over a very rough terrain, it was very difficult to get any speed on that stuff. The over the bridge and onto the other bank of the river again. More climbing followed by some nice downhill open section. And into the forest again which had loads of roots and small but stinging kickers. Finally, once you got to the top, one of the best downhill bits of trail I've ever ridden started. Quite similar to Toro but faster with loads of jumpy humps and stuff. The finale was a cool drop onto the fireroad and back into start/finish area.
The race
The S1 field was small so there was no worries about traffic and overtaking. We all started together bar one rider (who I've never seen before) that took off like a mad thing and sprinted away. Well, needless to say, that didn't last long! I think everybody went by him before we got into the single track. Robin, Gareth, Mark, Alfie and Ciaran got into the singletrack in front of me. Somewhere down the singletrack beside the river Ciaran had a mechanical and I continued to chase Alfie. I knew I had to put some time into Alfie on the 1st lap before he would have a chance to get his racing mojo, I knew that he would be catching me on the techy stuff! So I made an overtaking maneuver on the rocky switchbacks and broke my bollox to get away (successfully). On lap 2 Aidan went by me at half lap mark like a rocket and I had no chance of staying with him so I focused on holding Alfie off my back as I had a feeling he was closing on my on lap 3. Luckily for me he punctured. At this point I was a bit lonely as Vinnie was miles behind, I could see Stuart Galloway and the MBCC lad closing on me a bit (S2) and David Montgomery (Junior) went by me, he broke his chain later and I managed to hold off the S2 field. Lap 5 was just a formality really, I tried to enjoy it... in a sick way.
Drank 1 full bottle of water and had a gel on Lap 3. It was one of the hardest course I've ridden, next year I'll be back but on a full-sus!
The organisation
Flawless, nothing to say really. Well done MBCC, quite an improvement from last year! The soup and the Porsches were a nice touch too!
And you proved (as others club did as well) that you don't need a fancy timing system to have reliable results!
Well done to everyone that made an effort to get down there, and to all the podiumers (ladies and Bob)
Strava:
http://app.strava.com/rides/8461024