NPS Maheramorne
This race was a chance to blow away the cobwebs having finished my thesis the day before. I’d done this course a few times before so knew what to expect – flat, a few fun kickers and drops, fast hard racing. It was good to see a few girls in the Elite race in roasting hot sun.
We set off chasing the juniors, with Mel Spath quickly moving in front. I got behind, fighting my way through clouds of billowing dust that kicked up from the stony quarry, but struggled to hold here wheel and it didn’t take long for a gap to open up. I felt like I was pushing hard but wasn’t getting anywhere.
I got a bit bored on the second lap, stuck riding on my own, but it improved after that when some of the guys caught up from behind and I had some good battles with them. It was all fast and furious stuff, pushing as hard as possible without much chance for recovery since there were no real descents. I finished second, further back than I’d have liked but now intend to make the most of more training time to get up to speed.
Irish NPS 5 – Killaloe
MBUL hosted the 5th round of the NPS in Killaloe on Sunday, they’d put a lot of work into making the singletrack more weatherproof than previous years and the course was great - one huge long fireroad climb that was very exposed and hot, followed by lots of damp woody singletrack, mostly downhill with a few steep kickers.
As ever I was attempting to keep up with Mel Spath who was pushing the pace at the front. I managed to keep her in sight until the top of a long steep climb, and when we hit a section of off-camber, rooty singletrack through the forest I was able to gain some time. I almost got in front as she dabbed on a steep kicker but resigned to following as closely as possible.
Each lap I lost sight of Mel as we descended a narrow switchback trail towards the finish, thinking I’d lost her, but once we hit the climb I could see her again 20 seconds or so ahead. This gave me all the motivation I needed to push hard and stop her getting away, with the hope of making up time on the descent. The climb was a killer though, long, hot and painful!
On the last lap I managed to close the gap slightly, going all out on the climb, but this left me pretty wrecked and it was hard to get enough composure to ride the decent smoothly. Any chance to catch up was lost when my chain got tangled somehow as I tried to climb the last kicker and I couldn’t turn the pedals. I stopped to sort it but lost about 30 seconds, so finished in 2nd. My last half lap could have been better, but overall I was happy with the race, to be close enough to put Mel under pressure is a big improvement! Thanks to UCD for their support and to MBUL for putting on a great race.
No comments:
Post a Comment