XC NPS 4 Djouce woods 15.6.08

There will be a full preview the week before the event posted on www.irishxcmtb.com but for now ..
Its an amazing course. The downhill sections are clean, technical lines with some amazing new additions.
The climbs to compliment the descents are savage. Serious amount of work has gone into the design and construction, in a huge effort to make everything rideable even in the wet.
Its a real mtb course. So start polishing your skills up.
We have designed it in such a way that the lap is something you really want to do, its not just an xc race, its a big sexy 25 to 45 minutes of offroad cycling.
In fact its so good, i'm considering letting the Sports riders do the whole lap, it seems harsh to me that because you might not be a serious racer that you don't get the honour of doing the whole thing.
Sure it might be a bit hard for some people, but come on, its mountainbiking, we wouldn't do it if it was easy.
Opinions please..
Richie

do the full lap

makes no sense in not doing it

let them do the full lap, its nice to get a time comparison, And feel same challenge as everybody else.

Took a spin around the lap today, guided by Oz. Seriously impressive stuff there. The best course of '08 maybe? Loved the steeply bermed track that eventually leads you down to Robin's drop into the river. Looks really solid and weather proof. The climb from the K Cap with the jump half way up is deadly now aswell. Can really power up without worrying too much about clipping the side bank. The fox glove climb is painful in a better way than it used to be I think, much better that way...


Deadly stuff altogether, well done lads!

Full lap definitely, I was a little pissed in the djouce k-cap that I missed so much fun stuff, because I rode sports. Two laps there of the big course would have been better than three of the short sports one.
Maximum pleasure please.

Definately a full lap for the sports, infact, make the f**kers go up the red fire road too....

I say do the full lap. but only one lap might be a bit short for the fast sports riders and two laps might be too much for the slower sports riders.

as we discussed over the weekend could the sports riders do 1.5 laps or extend the course for a extra long lap. but i'm not sure if thats possible at this stage.

my 2 cents...

Short lap.... other wise there will be bangers...

Short lap will be better 'racing' for the sports people...

Short lap will make it easier to get the sports people finished before race 2.

If you feel hard done-by: maybe you are in the wrong category.

I am aware of finishing the sports race for the senior race..
maybe your're right about people being in the wrong category
it alll depends on what you want.If you are a real committed racer entering sports with a carbon XTC under you,and fully lycra-ed up then you don't belong in sports, harden the fcuk up and enter your age cat or experts .
i feel we are cheating sports riders out of a great experience by shortening their race.
I also think that the faster sports riders then get an idea ,by their lap times, where they would fit in in an expert cat or age cat.
We will have 2 lap tops so waiting for the sports riders to finish is not an option.
theres a lot going for both ideas.
I just want to see what the majority of sports riders want.
one lap of the course could see the winner of the sports in 30 to 35 mins for 1 lap or over an hour for 2.
theres plenty of time to decide.
Opinions from sports riders please.
The lap is brilliant..we've done a lot of work on it, I don't want people to feel that they aren't good enough to ride it.
Sports riders are people too, you know.
and lets have reasonable comments please,
Richie

you were talking about a Sports A and Sport B category a while back there Richie - though don't recall the detail - would that apply here?

I reckon 2 full laps for the sports, if i get my ass in gear and end up racing i dont wanna have just 35mins riding. As it is sports i dont think it matters if people are slow but i think most people can manage an hour or so of cycling and would feel a whole lot better finishing 2 full laps and being wrecked than doing 1 lap and wondering if they could have got more out of themselves.

Every week on lap 1 of the club races i ask myself 'why?' but by the end of lap 2/ start of lap 3 i start to understand.

Basically Richie, do you want people at the end of your race in the sports cat to say:

A. 'Gosh that wasn't too bad, all that training we did in Ballinastoe paid off' !!!!!

B. 'Holy F*ck, that knocked the clipe out of me i better start some off fireroad training'

it would but the powers that be vetoed me on that one..however, i may have a tantrum

alright Paulo, Ballinastoe and fireroad training won't help you at this race..but i agree with you..
ride hard or stay home as my wife says..

as sports rider....

after riding the course last night, i'd definitely say do 2 full laps for sports. It would be a pity not to get the chance to ride the full loop, it's a really enjoyable course. (thanks to all involved in design and building by the way). It's a great example of mountain-biking and it'll give a sharp wake-up call to newbies who ride b-toe too much..Sure it might be a long race for some but 2 full loops it's not an impossible task, you'll definitely get your moneys worth and a sense of achievement!

2 full, glorious laps. As long as they're allowed walk up the foxglove bit and the steep pull from the 2nd river crossing they'll be fine. But anyone caught walking up the newly widened bit near the end should be pushed back down and made do it again.

There will be a full preview the week before the event posted on www.irishxcmtb.com but for now ..
Its an amazing course. The downhill sections are clean, technical lines with some amazing new additions.
The climbs to compliment the descents are savage. Serious amount of work has gone into the design and construction, in a huge effort to make everything rideable even in the wet.
Its a real mtb course. So start polishing your skills up.
We have designed it in such a way that the lap is something you really want to do, its not just an xc race, its a big sexy 25 to 45 minutes of offroad cycling.
In fact its so good, i'm considering letting the Sports riders do the whole lap, it seems harsh to me that because you might not be a serious racer that you don't get the honour of doing the whole thing.
Sure it might be a bit hard for some people, but come on, its mountainbiking, we wouldn't do it if it was easy.
Opinions please..
Richie

do the full lap

makes no sense in not doing it

let them do the full lap, its nice to get a time comparison, And feel same challenge as everybody else.

Took a spin around the lap today, guided by Oz. Seriously impressive stuff there. The best course of '08 maybe? Loved the steeply bermed track that eventually leads you down to Robin's drop into the river. Looks really solid and weather proof. The climb from the K Cap with the jump half way up is deadly now aswell. Can really power up without worrying too much about clipping the side bank. The fox glove climb is painful in a better way than it used to be I think, much better that way...


Deadly stuff altogether, well done lads!

Full lap definitely, I was a little pissed in the djouce k-cap that I missed so much fun stuff, because I rode sports. Two laps there of the big course would have been better than three of the short sports one.
Maximum pleasure please.

Definately a full lap for the sports, infact, make the f**kers go up the red fire road too....

I say do the full lap. but only one lap might be a bit short for the fast sports riders and two laps might be too much for the slower sports riders.

as we discussed over the weekend could the sports riders do 1.5 laps or extend the course for a extra long lap. but i'm not sure if thats possible at this stage.

my 2 cents...

Short lap.... other wise there will be bangers...

Short lap will be better 'racing' for the sports people...

Short lap will make it easier to get the sports people finished before race 2.

If you feel hard done-by: maybe you are in the wrong category.

I am aware of finishing the sports race for the senior race..
maybe your're right about people being in the wrong category
it alll depends on what you want.If you are a real committed racer entering sports with a carbon XTC under you,and fully lycra-ed up then you don't belong in sports, harden the fcuk up and enter your age cat or experts .
i feel we are cheating sports riders out of a great experience by shortening their race.
I also think that the faster sports riders then get an idea ,by their lap times, where they would fit in in an expert cat or age cat.
We will have 2 lap tops so waiting for the sports riders to finish is not an option.
theres a lot going for both ideas.
I just want to see what the majority of sports riders want.
one lap of the course could see the winner of the sports in 30 to 35 mins for 1 lap or over an hour for 2.
theres plenty of time to decide.
Opinions from sports riders please.
The lap is brilliant..we've done a lot of work on it, I don't want people to feel that they aren't good enough to ride it.
Sports riders are people too, you know.
and lets have reasonable comments please,
Richie

you were talking about a Sports A and Sport B category a while back there Richie - though don't recall the detail - would that apply here?

I reckon 2 full laps for the sports, if i get my ass in gear and end up racing i dont wanna have just 35mins riding. As it is sports i dont think it matters if people are slow but i think most people can manage an hour or so of cycling and would feel a whole lot better finishing 2 full laps and being wrecked than doing 1 lap and wondering if they could have got more out of themselves.

Every week on lap 1 of the club races i ask myself 'why?' but by the end of lap 2/ start of lap 3 i start to understand.

Basically Richie, do you want people at the end of your race in the sports cat to say:

A. 'Gosh that wasn't too bad, all that training we did in Ballinastoe paid off' !!!!!

B. 'Holy F*ck, that knocked the clipe out of me i better start some off fireroad training'

it would but the powers that be vetoed me on that one..however, i may have a tantrum

alright Paulo, Ballinastoe and fireroad training won't help you at this race..but i agree with you..
ride hard or stay home as my wife says..

as sports rider....

after riding the course last night, i'd definitely say do 2 full laps for sports. It would be a pity not to get the chance to ride the full loop, it's a really enjoyable course. (thanks to all involved in design and building by the way). It's a great example of mountain-biking and it'll give a sharp wake-up call to newbies who ride b-toe too much..Sure it might be a long race for some but 2 full loops it's not an impossible task, you'll definitely get your moneys worth and a sense of achievement!

2 full, glorious laps. As long as they're allowed walk up the foxglove bit and the steep pull from the 2nd river crossing they'll be fine. But anyone caught walking up the newly widened bit near the end should be pushed back down and made do it again.