Lough Derg MTB Challenge

Hi,
Just to say I went down to this race yesterday near Killaloe - the main race was a 2 day 4 stage affair but I just went along for the 1 day (2 stages) option - it was a great mix for a race - 26km morning stage over mostly fire roads but with some single track to banjax you and sort people out prior to the second stage which was a time trial with people heading off in pairs at 30 second intervals based on their finishing times from the morning - this ensured really competitive riding - stage 2 started with a full 1km climb up fire breaks of varying quality, then - when knackered - into the techy stuff of the Killaloe NPS - in fact I think that stage 2 was essentially 1 x 6km lap of the said NPS event. Objective of the race was to have a mix of fast milage type stages combined with more single track focused stages to test both aspects of rider ability. Top 10 of 2-day race had some very strong English, Dutch and Danish types with one guy from Colarado over for the race... Organisation was really good and as was the atmosphere. I think these guys are going to organise more of the same and I would be on for it again....

I did both days, really enjoyed it, well organised and bloody tough for my first event. Great bunch of riders competing, no big ego's & lots of smiling faces.

well done Donough, I see Eoin Lawless did very well in the results , nice one.

Eoin did really well, was flying, training hard for the Transalps, and many aspects of this event were spot on - the 2 day was the way to go alright I'd say, couldnt make it due to logistics with kids, but enjoyed the Sunday race and found it tough enough - must get back to that NPS stuff in the forest, only have vague memories of it as my head was spinning after that mad climb... deadly..

it was a deadly event, we had a good contingent there for the two days.

Saturdays afternoon stage was the highlight, steep long climb to the top of Tountinna then a long steep descent back to the lake shore.

The format was excellent, it was great to be able to socialise between stages and shoot the $hit with your fellow competitors. The last stage was brilliant, set off in pairs, made for close racing.

And the organisation was excellent, times and placings for each stage and GC available almost immediately after each stage.

I see a big future for this sort of event here. Timing wasn't great, being between two NPS's - maybe August/September would attract a bigger crowd

www.racing795.com

Lough Derg

It was a great weekend - perfect weather, good crack between the races, well organised with results available within minutes. The only complaint I'd make is the low proportion of single track. The final time trial was savage - steep sprint for a few km, so by the time I got to the technical section of it I was jelly.