Class weekend..
I didn't get down till 2.00 yesterday and managed a couple of sections of the lower trails and stage 5 but I was happy on the new bike ..back to the Hotel with the girls and into the swimming pool for a few lengths ..I haven't swam in a while and as I struggled into my budgie smugglers I was very concious of my dilapidated middle aged body but hey f*ck it I am training to be like your man in the Bacardi ad , aren't I ?
So 25 laps of the pool later I sucked in the gut and swaggered back out and got ready for the evenings festivities..
Some craic in the boozer with the Bike Addicts , then into the dinner area were the slagging was fierce and the food took ages to arrive but when it did it was deadly..back in the boozer for more craic..then I was abandoned by all me mates and had to have a pint with the remains of MAD..so off to bed I went and got up this morning for breakfast but it didn't seem that long since I had me dinner and couldn't handle much ...some cornflakes , yuk, i feckin hate cornflakes..I think I read somewhere that a rat fed on cornflakes its entire life will explode in sunlight or something..ot I may have just imagined that ! some bread and 11 cups of coffee..man I envied Smithers and his smuggled in Banana..
So off to the Ballyhoura trail center..I felt violated by the Coillte hillbilly who demanded another â¬5 for parking..the previous day I had been accosted by the Coillte guy in charge with the " your that Byrne fella down from Dublin , aren't ye ?" is there a most wanted list in Coillte offices all over Ireland ? :)
Got me bike ready , did a little check up of the bike ..you know how it is, new bike , things can get loose...and as my bike has Blue on it..its hardly surprising its going to be like a harnessed pagan sex god !
Thanks to Tony Flynn for the load of his tools ..being a Bike Shop Magnate , I have grown accustomed to having my own Corps of Bicycle Engineers and Panini makers !! I wandered about looking for Team Giant and soon rather than later we were on our way..
Up the fireroad and across some singletrack and arrived at Stage 1..
I went behind Smithers , loads of pedalling , more pedalling , some swooping around corners and then some berms and beeeep ..
Then up the road and up some sort of mountainside where we arrived at Stage 2..a lot had been said about stage 2..but I thought it was deadly..nearly had an off the bike over the bars starfish freewheel moment but managed to get through the gloop and on to the fireroad ..then it was pedal swoop pedal !
Stage 3 then was an interruption of a ncie flowy day on the bike..
The top was like a maze for me..I enjoy the old fashioned method of Mountainbike racing, just go in a straight line and when you get to a corner turn !
But I couldn't make up my bleeding mind on the top and just crawled down the damn thing..
Stage 4 started great..it was fast furious and i was possessed by some sort of wobbily headed demon as I completely over shot the sharp left and pedalled like a lunatic comepletely the wrong way , only for the fact that it was going uphill a lot I would have kept going..so I turned around and off I went
scutter scutter and finish..not impressed with myself at all but thems the breaks..
Stage 5 was a doozy ..felt quick, felt furious but it wasn't enough to make a big difference, still I'm delighted to have gotten 3rd in a very competitive category ..they shoul change the name of the over 50s though to " Not dead yet you f*ckers !!"
great weekend , great format , brilliant organisation..nice touch being able to see your placing on the TV screen..
No idea, are the results up? I had 2 big crashes on 4, went sailing off the woodwork, 4 ft drop, don't know how I got away with it. Great day though with Dave K, Dave and John. Stage 5 was unreal!
Stage 5 is something else , I think though that the Great MTB Philosopher Maximus Artisticus said it very well , the top of stage 5 and the bottom of Stage 4 ..awesome..jesus woodwork on stage 4..now I remember..horrible. Hard work driving home afterwards..
a great days riding in ballyhoura me dave kelly john richardson and don went around the five stages 30k i think ,weather was fab ,stage 5 was the best but the climb up was horrible im happy with my result having not been able to practice on saturday.
next time ill make it down for both days, a very well run event thanks to niall davis and his team, roll on the next one.
Great weekend altogether!!!great day on the bike , rode around with Oisin and hooked up with Darragh Richie and Shona!the pace is only fierce out there and is a lot faster than last year.i pedalled as hard as I cud with five clean stages and I am amazed by the speed of the pro's.
Any results???
yes loads of results..more enduro spins needed and less XC..thats just the way its going to have to be !! and it will be fookin awesome once I get the hang of the Blue Thunder !
Great weekend and great enduro in ballyhoura again. Really enjoyed the race yesterday, bottom of stage 4 was great but stage 5 is absolutely brilliant, well worth the long slog to the top. Will definitely have to get signed on earlier next time though as by the time our wave left we had to wait about 10 mins at the start of every stage which added nearly an hour to our time to get the whole way round!! Need to get fitter for all the pedally stuff though, lost a load of time there.Had a good laugh going round with Dave, Dave and Don, who was flying!! Haven't heard or seen any results bar Max getting third, great result!!
A great biking weekend, great event but a tough one, as it was 5 stages for hard, pedally, mountain biking having to give it your all to get a quick time.
Went around with Damo, left just after him on each stage but no chance of keeping up with him. Although we left late in the day the first stage was the only one we had any real wait on.
I did OK on the stages but made a mess of small section on each stage which not to happy about..... but still had a deadly day biking.
Had an early start yesterday morning to try and get to Ballyhoura at a reasonable time, got there and registered. I have to say the set-up Biking.ie have is very professional and well run. Due to the new way they assign departing slots had a bit of time to hang around so got the cuppa and had a relax for a while.
Myself and Jack headed off, stage one was a short one and hard to know where you could have made up more time on it, all trail centre pretty much but good all the same. got the the end of stage one and the timing beepers were nearly hidden in a bush so was fun trying to locate then.
Then chased after Jack as he bombed onto stage 2, we passed a few people on the way who were looking very very mucky and they said the top section was wet, very wet so we had an idea what to expect. As expected the top section of stage 2 was slomp, dropped onto the fire road and then back on the humpy section of trail centre which is always fun to ride but by the end your in the red. Stage 3 was a new section up the top which was tough but then you got into fast flowey singletrack which was really sweet to ride. At this stage in the day your starting to feel a little tired and then stage 4 madness hits you and gives you such a buzz, had a wrong turn but apart from that a pretty good run. The last stage, stage 5 is amazing, yes its a long slog up to the top but its just a super fun stage and by the time you get to the bottom you have forgotten about the climb. Nice relaxaed atmosphere around the finish area, the burgers were tasty as always and the Muck-off beanbags a gift.
Thanks to Jack for the company on the day and for geting me a time slot on saturday. Good to see a decent number of people from the club there, its a great day out. Looking forward to 3 Rock
Class weekend..
I didn't get down till 2.00 yesterday and managed a couple of sections of the lower trails and stage 5 but I was happy on the new bike ..back to the Hotel with the girls and into the swimming pool for a few lengths ..I haven't swam in a while and as I struggled into my budgie smugglers I was very concious of my dilapidated middle aged body but hey f*ck it I am training to be like your man in the Bacardi ad , aren't I ?
So 25 laps of the pool later I sucked in the gut and swaggered back out and got ready for the evenings festivities..
Some craic in the boozer with the Bike Addicts , then into the dinner area were the slagging was fierce and the food took ages to arrive but when it did it was deadly..back in the boozer for more craic..then I was abandoned by all me mates and had to have a pint with the remains of MAD..so off to bed I went and got up this morning for breakfast but it didn't seem that long since I had me dinner and couldn't handle much ...some cornflakes , yuk, i feckin hate cornflakes..I think I read somewhere that a rat fed on cornflakes its entire life will explode in sunlight or something..ot I may have just imagined that ! some bread and 11 cups of coffee..man I envied Smithers and his smuggled in Banana..
So off to the Ballyhoura trail center..I felt violated by the Coillte hillbilly who demanded another â¬5 for parking..the previous day I had been accosted by the Coillte guy in charge with the " your that Byrne fella down from Dublin , aren't ye ?" is there a most wanted list in Coillte offices all over Ireland ? :)
Got me bike ready , did a little check up of the bike ..you know how it is, new bike , things can get loose...and as my bike has Blue on it..its hardly surprising its going to be like a harnessed pagan sex god !
Thanks to Tony Flynn for the load of his tools ..being a Bike Shop Magnate , I have grown accustomed to having my own Corps of Bicycle Engineers and Panini makers !! I wandered about looking for Team Giant and soon rather than later we were on our way..
Up the fireroad and across some singletrack and arrived at Stage 1..
I went behind Smithers , loads of pedalling , more pedalling , some swooping around corners and then some berms and beeeep ..
Then up the road and up some sort of mountainside where we arrived at Stage 2..a lot had been said about stage 2..but I thought it was deadly..nearly had an off the bike over the bars starfish freewheel moment but managed to get through the gloop and on to the fireroad ..then it was pedal swoop pedal !
Stage 3 then was an interruption of a ncie flowy day on the bike..
The top was like a maze for me..I enjoy the old fashioned method of Mountainbike racing, just go in a straight line and when you get to a corner turn !
But I couldn't make up my bleeding mind on the top and just crawled down the damn thing..
Stage 4 started great..it was fast furious and i was possessed by some sort of wobbily headed demon as I completely over shot the sharp left and pedalled like a lunatic comepletely the wrong way , only for the fact that it was going uphill a lot I would have kept going..so I turned around and off I went
scutter scutter and finish..not impressed with myself at all but thems the breaks..
Stage 5 was a doozy ..felt quick, felt furious but it wasn't enough to make a big difference, still I'm delighted to have gotten 3rd in a very competitive category ..they shoul change the name of the over 50s though to " Not dead yet you f*ckers !!"
great weekend , great format , brilliant organisation..nice touch being able to see your placing on the TV screen..
No idea, are the results up? I had 2 big crashes on 4, went sailing off the woodwork, 4 ft drop, don't know how I got away with it. Great day though with Dave K, Dave and John. Stage 5 was unreal!
Stage 5 is something else , I think though that the Great MTB Philosopher Maximus Artisticus said it very well , the top of stage 5 and the bottom of Stage 4 ..awesome..jesus woodwork on stage 4..now I remember..horrible. Hard work driving home afterwards..
a great days riding in ballyhoura me dave kelly john richardson and don went around the five stages 30k i think ,weather was fab ,stage 5 was the best but the climb up was horrible im happy with my result having not been able to practice on saturday.
next time ill make it down for both days, a very well run event thanks to niall davis and his team, roll on the next one.
Great weekend altogether!!!great day on the bike , rode around with Oisin and hooked up with Darragh Richie and Shona!the pace is only fierce out there and is a lot faster than last year.i pedalled as hard as I cud with five clean stages and I am amazed by the speed of the pro's.
Any results???
yes loads of results..more enduro spins needed and less XC..thats just the way its going to have to be !! and it will be fookin awesome once I get the hang of the Blue Thunder !
Great weekend and great enduro in ballyhoura again. Really enjoyed the race yesterday, bottom of stage 4 was great but stage 5 is absolutely brilliant, well worth the long slog to the top. Will definitely have to get signed on earlier next time though as by the time our wave left we had to wait about 10 mins at the start of every stage which added nearly an hour to our time to get the whole way round!! Need to get fitter for all the pedally stuff though, lost a load of time there.Had a good laugh going round with Dave, Dave and Don, who was flying!! Haven't heard or seen any results bar Max getting third, great result!!
A great biking weekend, great event but a tough one, as it was 5 stages for hard, pedally, mountain biking having to give it your all to get a quick time.
Went around with Damo, left just after him on each stage but no chance of keeping up with him. Although we left late in the day the first stage was the only one we had any real wait on.
I did OK on the stages but made a mess of small section on each stage which not to happy about..... but still had a deadly day biking.
Had an early start yesterday morning to try and get to Ballyhoura at a reasonable time, got there and registered. I have to say the set-up Biking.ie have is very professional and well run. Due to the new way they assign departing slots had a bit of time to hang around so got the cuppa and had a relax for a while.
Myself and Jack headed off, stage one was a short one and hard to know where you could have made up more time on it, all trail centre pretty much but good all the same. got the the end of stage one and the timing beepers were nearly hidden in a bush so was fun trying to locate then.
Then chased after Jack as he bombed onto stage 2, we passed a few people on the way who were looking very very mucky and they said the top section was wet, very wet so we had an idea what to expect. As expected the top section of stage 2 was slomp, dropped onto the fire road and then back on the humpy section of trail centre which is always fun to ride but by the end your in the red. Stage 3 was a new section up the top which was tough but then you got into fast flowey singletrack which was really sweet to ride. At this stage in the day your starting to feel a little tired and then stage 4 madness hits you and gives you such a buzz, had a wrong turn but apart from that a pretty good run. The last stage, stage 5 is amazing, yes its a long slog up to the top but its just a super fun stage and by the time you get to the bottom you have forgotten about the climb. Nice relaxaed atmosphere around the finish area, the burgers were tasty as always and the Muck-off beanbags a gift.
Thanks to Jack for the company on the day and for geting me a time slot on saturday. Good to see a decent number of people from the club there, its a great day out. Looking forward to 3 Rock