Fergals Jibber-Jabber

Project fork-cam

2008-12-04T17:15:00.000-08:00

While the cable-cam idea is cooking, I've rigged-up brackets for mounting the camera on the forks.
One is stanchion mounted, the other (the best one) on the fork leg.
The fork-leg mount is made from a plastic light bracket, and the holder for a Light and Motion lamp which allows 360 degree rotation.

I'll be trying out the fork-leg one at this weekends MADMTB Club Champs
I'll give Steve the stanchion-mount one and see what kind of footage we get.
The stanchion-mount also allows 360 degree rotation and was made from bits of plastic for feck-all

Project cablecam: Part 1

2008-11-22T15:32:00.000-08:00

ok,
so the plan is to rig-up a carrier for a camcorder to get MTB footage.
Seems to be a lot of unique indie designs out there, some really basic - some very professional.
I've found a handy site with some nice ideas, in particular, the one in the pics below looks good because it can be made with fairly basic materials, and you can alter the angle easily.
This site has some good camera mounts, and this one is similar

Also it holds the camera upright, which is what I need as my sofware can't invert the image
I'll put up a post on the regular MTB forums to try scavenge a pair of roller-skate wheels, but maybe I could find some rollers in a hardware and use them instead
Not sure if I'll use rope, or maybe some 50lb monofilament fishing line, which would provide less rolling resistance to the small rollers
As a first location, Imight use the Rock n Roll forest section up 3rock, as there are some fast &relatively straight sections that would probably look good

This one is REALLY impressive:

Irish XC National Champs

2008-08-12T14:31:00.000-07:00

Well, I got in the top 10 but figured I could have done better by a few places if I trained. But then I had enough of training at that time so I just enjoyed the course - a really nice course laid-on by the WORCies too - didn't really realise how much fun it was until I was tearing through it during the race - during practice it didn't seem like anything special but racing it was a different story.

NPS 5 2008 Tymon Park

2008-07-06T14:53:00.000-07:00

A pure mud-fest, very difficult racing, the ability to stay upright thru the turns was a skill in itself.

The mouldy weather the night before bucketed rain the whole night long and well into the morning so I guess you can't do too much against that, but there were some brutal sections that really should have been re-routed/closed-off.

I thought the first few laps were great - the tear-off from the start line was vicious and the amount of muck being thrown up was crazy.
Leaned into some guy nicely on the first turn and heard his helmet bang of a tree so had a big silly grin on my face for that lap.
Had a great sliddery ride all the way to the huge gulch of pure slop - shoes filled with gooch and it was mud-central from then on in.
I was feeling less inspired on the 3rd and 4th laps with the wheels packing-up with a huge amount of branches and mud, stopping several times to unclog the wheels.
The middle-ring was out of bounds due to chain-suck which made spinning on the marshy sections pretty difficult.
Then halfway thru the last lap just when I was being chased by Oz from EPIC my derailleur gets mysteriously pulled into the spokes - didn't hit anything or snag it at all, guess maybe the bouts of chain-suck weakened it, but it sheared-off at the bolt and that was me out of the race - pity as I was going reasonably ok, but that was my first mechanical ever in 2 years of racing so I guess my luck had to run-out at some stage.
The food after was really nice and some intense sunshine too.
Thanks Sean for doing my bottles and to the crew at the pit for the support!

Trailbuilding post #3

2008-07-05T15:25:00.000-07:00

Finished the exit from Zippy - looks nice, and started RipRide - got about a third fully done, the lower section won't be as much fun as the top but I'll see how it goes.
It was pretty jammy finding the run-in to it off the fireroad.
There'll be a few of us up on Monday to try finish things off, it's looking good for my triple-trail club-league concept this Wednesday, though weather is gonna be totally brutal for the week.

IMBRC Team Relay (pre-NPS 5)

2008-07-05T15:17:00.000-07:00

That was a bit of craic, bit sloppy and sliddery but fun all the same.
Steve, Oisin and myself comprised team BigRing and put in a respectable performance for 3rd place.
A big turn-out from MAD today - good to see it.
The 2 lads are abandoning me for a week of MegaAvalanche the lucky feckers, I'll be racing in brutal conditions tomorrow as it has totally hammered down all night, wouldn't be surprised if the IMBRC had to cut-off a few sections as today was bad enough, anyway, we'll see.....

Trailbuilding post #2

2008-06-28T12:14:00.000-07:00

Fri 27 June:
Looked like a great night for a spin but I headed up after work and got a decent bit done.
I brought the entrance of Rock n Roll all the way back to the corner, downhill all the way pretty much, soft and a bit lumpy in places - will need a few weeks to bed in but it'll still be good, entrance is a bit tight but should be easy to widen it a bit.
Aligned another section a little better to keep the flow and make it faster

Sat 28 June:
A lot done today.
We completely finished the new RnR entrance and linking trail and blocked the old one.

The new section is gonna be great once it hardens up a bit.
Myself and Rob horsed a new trail out of it and got a huge amount done, the trail links the fireroad to the connector which runs from RnR new entrance to the fireroad (which leads down to the old MAD CC)

A good bit more needs to be done to this trail to make it rideable:

Logs need to be moved into position to form a bridge entrance into the trail, we've moved 4 into place already - need another 2 (ferns/gorse below are pretty thick, possibly easier to bridge it).
Laddering wood needs to be salvaged from the TToT and brought up to the new trail.

Also, where the new trail meets the connector trail needs to be altered - at present it meets the connector side-on - angle needs to be a lot shallower so you don't have to slow and turn sharply to get onto the conector.

Need some slaves.....

Trailbuilding post # 1

2008-06-26T08:42:00.000-07:00

Trailbuilding - it'd be good if I got paid by the metre, I'd have a few nice bikes..

Most of the trails I've been involved with have turned out well, except when the forest gets felled, or chainsaws get set upon my woodwork - that's the risk with this stuff.

Anyway, this weekend a soggy 3rock is the venue (when is it never the venue?), plenty of bits to be done - a fair bit of work in all.
Thinking of bringing the entrance of Rock N Roll up to the corner/junction.
Also need to bring the exit of Zippy to the entrance to Rock n Roll - that's a big job coz the forest is very dense in that section, but it can be done...

Not a whole lot else, except for Oz's new trail which will be a very large amount of work but it'll be good if it gets done.
Then of course there's my section of The Blast course - that'll be a good one - if I get given a decent stretch.

MAD Club League Round 2

2008-06-25T16:30:00.001-07:00

Well, the first one was a wash-out, I was trailbuilding before it so didn't race, just as well, it was schlompton-central.

The 2nd one tonight was great, initially I didn't want to race - just mess around on the DH track but soon got into it.

A decent gang out and myself and Oisin on the big bikes - big bikes are sooo fast on the DH stuff, struggled on the long fireroad climb naturally but the descent was well worth it.

Finished close to Oisin and we were tyre-to-tyre for pretty much all of the 3 laps-great racing - it was a lot better than I thought it would be.
I had tried to film the descent down the boneshaker but got the camera angle wrong so it didn't come out very well but it will be sorted out for the next time.

I'm thinking of suggesting a point-to-point race next week to change it around a little, could be good having a few different routes...

2008 so far...

2008-06-25T15:42:00.000-07:00

Where are the 2007 blog posts?
Never wrote them, not to worry, I'll start again from now, actually from 2008 forward.
So the first part of 2008 was concerned with the K-Capital Cup race league.
I didn't do any long-distance road-training carry on over the winter which apparently is very useful for 'building the engine'.
So that left me with spins up 3Rock/Leadmines and local spins around the Park and back, did a days training along with a few MAD racers with Irish XC Champ Robin Seymour who gave us a pile of great info and tips.
My first race in Kilruddery on 9th March kicked-off the season, finished 11th of 46 riders, was hoping for top 10 but I was happy enough knowing 10 secs faster would have put me in 9th.

Next up was the Moneyscalp race on 23rd March in Co.Down. The organisers but a brilliant track together which definitely suited me - finished 4th of 29 riders in a time of 1:54 - the longer race duration definitely suited me.

The 3rd race was in Djouce - another excellent venue with some very technical sections - finished 10th but a fall into a hole which I struggled to get out of cost me a minute or so on the Foxglove climb.

The last race in Castlewellan should have been a good one for me, but definitely overtrained in the weeks and days before it and it cost me dearly - felt crap halfway thru the 1st lap - not a good sign, and it didn't get any better,
finished 16th - brutal - should have been top 10 easy.

Overall, I finished 6th which I was happy with, learned a lot though with regard to over-training, won't be making the same mistake again.

I missed the first 3 NPS races, the 4th was hosted by EPIC in Djouce and was a killer event, track, organisation, catering etc.. were top notch, a credit to President Byrne and his club members.
I ended-up racing Elites just 'cause I wanted 4 laps on that course, and the fact that Rory from EPIC gave me the 'incentive' I needed to make the jump.

I finished last at 2:04(there was one DNF) but not far off the last Elite at 2hours.
My 3-lap time of 1hr:30min would have been good enough for 4th in Experts, and I would have probably made 6th Masters with a bit of a push on the last climb, so I was pretty happy overall, but totally spent by the end of the race.

I must add a few pics to liven this up at some stage....

Marathon XC Champs Carlingford Sep 2006

2006-09-25T04:39:00.000-07:00

Cramps, crashes, big bogs, gooey-swamps, millions of feckin' sheep and their shite, hail-stones, sunshine, killer climbs, stream-crossings, endless fields, superfast descents, technical descents, slippy descents....I could go on but there was a lot of all of that in the Marathon Champs this year.

An excellent event in terms of the organisation & race itelf, post-race chicken curry and hot showers - brilliant.

Finished 66/67th (whichever) out of 115 - not great, but put in a load of effort, thank god for red bull and power gels - I woulda been dead without them.
The champs felt twice as hard as the Powercourt spin MAD and IMBRC did a few weeks before hand and it was 10 or 15 km shorter....then again we had a good break in the middle of that spin, but we did go further that day - more of those kind of spins are needed.

Need to find out where I came in Sports....

EPIC Blast III. Sun 17th Sept 2006

2006-09-19T07:07:00.000-07:00

I wasn't too sure what I expected of
The EPIC Blast III: Revenge of the Clipe.
I had heard loads of great and scary things about it so I had to sample first hand what this XC/DH hybrid beast was all about.
Got there & got signed-up before 10am, thus plenty of time to see what lay before me.

Met Ryan and Noel and headed-up the fireroad to the forest entrance and pushed from there.Went all the way to the top of the hill and mad a few key adjustments ie; dropping the saddle and setting the suss to nice and soft.

We set off with Ryan leading, then Noel then me, halfway down a spectacular crash from Noel; bike flipped twice and spray of muck everywhere, real lucky he got his hand in front of his face before the chain ring got to him, he had a very deep gash in his hand - you could see all the stuff inside his hand - nasty!!

Noel headed down to get his hand looked after and myself and Ryan carried on - once in the forest it was really hard to see anything for a few secs until your eyes adjusted to the dark.

I was in the 9th heat and finished 7th after crashing and wrestling with my chain for 5 mins.
In the 7th place heat final I got 2nd, Ryan finished first.

The big line up for the Blast was a thing of deranged beauty, the amazing view over the sun-drenched rolling hills and simmering sea provided an air of soon-to-be-destroyed tranquility as it contrasted ridiculously with the massive line of shining helmets, tank-like bikes and asylum-bound screaming riders, all committed to doing whatever it took to get down to the finish-ramp or die tryin'……

Sean Herlihy started the countdown from 5 seconds but some riders were gone even before he got to 4 - then everyone lashed-down together - what a rush, not knowing if you would be the next one over the bars as was the fate of many when they hit the invisible heather-camouflaged holes.
I was going well until I punctured halfway down, fixed the puncture and continued on and didn't finish last so I was happy.

Everything was right, the weather, the people, the attitudes, the food, the huge bikes, the skinny bikes .... and THAT course.
By the time the track-masters were finished with it, the hill had metamorphosised into something resembling the forest from the Evil Dead where you just hammered thru it as fast as you humanly could, terrified that if you spent a millisecond too long on the brakes, an unspeakable terror in the form of a body-armoured, full-faced demon mounted on a bomb-proof massively sussed bike with scaffolding pipes for forks, would flatten you without a second thought and disappear into the forest laughing demonically looking for the next victim.

The Blast was my absolute best MTB experience ever , really enjoyed the day.
I came off a generous amount of times but was laughing so much at other people that I didn't get time to feel the hurt until later that evening, one crash I landed right on top off my head thus a sore neck/shoulders, but nothing serious.

I must admit to a bit of blast rage as I ran into the rear wheel of some guy who was slowing me down, down he went and off I sped, I apologized but was laughing at the time so maybe it didn't sound too sincere…..don't think I should try that in an XC event, I also shouldered a guy into a hedge – oh that felt good I gotta admit.

My best experience of the day was during The Blast about 40 yards before the forest entrance:
I had seen lads dropping like they were being taken-out by snipers (atop a grassy knoll) all the way down, but just then I saw the guy beside me hit a hole, go over the bars, and he was looking straight at me with this huge grin as he shouted “Aaaghh brilliant!” just before his head disappeared into the heather and his bike and legs flipped over him – fair play whoever you were, that’s what they call Blast attitude I suppose.

Slade NPS Round 7 3 Sep 2006

2006-09-05T04:17:00.000-07:00

From Dave Barry selflessly throwing himself in front of the logger which was a mere 30ft away from felling C-sik, to Gar singlehandedly butterin' 5,436 cheese n hang sangers,
the damming of the fireroad that turned into a river, Luke commissioning 6 tonnes of steel girders and concrete to build those bomb-proof berms, not to mention the 5 quarry-loads of hardcore barrowed-up the fireroad and spread over the track..........ok, a very slight exaggeration there but suffice to say the IMBRC lads put in a MASSIVE amount of work to get the course in shape,.
There was no way this race was gonna fail with that level of effort.

The crap weather curse struck Slade again with a vengeance, but post-race, the countless brown dots on riders faces were muddy tears of joy, not woe!think the course held together really well and everyone appreciated that given dry conditions, it woulda been savage fast.

I got a 7th which wasn't bad considering the competition and conditions.

Good news is that there's a winter league being formulated so the training and racing will continue for another while yet!

Ulster XC Champs Aug 2006

2006-08-27T15:12:00.000-07:00

Another long spin North for Steve and myself, this time further than Castlewellan (passed through Castlewellan on the way and wanted to go on a warm-up spin of their great course) to Tievnadarragh Forest near Ballynahinch Co. Down.

Dromara Cycling Club were staging the Ulster MTB Cross Country Championships so we said we'd give it a go in prep for the last NPS of the season in Slade next week.

Parked-up on the side of the road and got registered, not many on the list when we signed-up, ended up being about 15 riders.
We took a practice spin but about 1.5km in Steves new chain snapped (as it had done the previous day too) and bent the deraileur in the process.
He repaired it and we finished the lap without about 5 mins before race start, but the derailleur looked like it was going to give problems later on and unfortunately it did.

We plonked oursleves at the front of the pack at the whistle went, Steve sprinted off strongly into the lead, followed by another guy then myslef - that was the order for a while until Steve was passed when he went on the outside of the tree, the other guy took the inside line.
Steve's gear-changes meanwhile didn't sound too healthy.
Later into that lap I passed the other guy on the fireroad and stayed in the lead until halfway though the 2nd lap when I got passed on the fireroad by a Slovak guy Lubo who seemed to come outta nowhere.

Was tiring toward the end of the 3rd lap (a loop was 4.5km) but saw from my speedo that I just needed to stay clean for another 2.5 km and that was my 2nd place secured.
Just then I slipped on a mucky drop and fell onto a log......shite!!!
Grabbed the bike and hopped back on, a quick look behind and I saw Gary Gray through the trees so I just went as hard as I could to the finish.
Arrived to find Steve had retired pretty pissed-off with chain snapped again so lousy luck there for Stevo.
Not a huge amount of riders in Sports today (11 finished) but was happy with my first ever podium position regardless (and my tenner prize money).
Roll-on IMBRCs hosting at Slade next week - should be a good one.
Andy Potts race report

Castlewellan NPS Round 6 13 Aug 2006

2006-08-11T01:26:00.000-07:00

Fears of not getting my front brakes fixed in time had me pretty concerned, but Chain Reaction came thru for me and the Juicy brake bleed kit arrived via courier on Friday.
The first bleed attempt didn't fully work, but the second one nailed it so I was in business.
An early rise on Sunday morning to pick Steve up then we were on our way.... got there before anyone else - it was great doing the practice lap with no-one else around.
A long drive to get there but the course was briliant, well designed, well bedded-in and great views over the lake.
Tough climb to start with fast/steep/techy singletrack kept us all amused.
Morgan narrowly eluded mechanical problems by puncturing AFTER the finish line - nice timing Morgan!Steve fresh outta French prison raced really well & got a 5th.Nigel was pushing hard and finished very close to Steve in 6th. Fergal got an 8th, Ryan had a great race just missing podium with a 4th.Mel won Sports ladies (Mel - you can give an account of your 'opposition'!) and finished strongly in overall Sports.
Not so lucky was Geoff whose derailleur decided to mortally injure itself by snapping-off on the first lap -aagghhh! and he looked so good in those gloves!
As we were sitting back after the race, Geoff’s face was not that of a happy man, but just then…when all appeared lost…a change!Geoff’s expression went from one of disappointment to contemplation, from contemplation to firm resolve, then finally to an unmistakable look of steely determination!
The fire of competitive commitment burned in his eyes, like hot aviation-fuel poured onto flaming lava, as he uttered the immortal words:“That’s it lads, next year is gonna be the year-MY YEAR, I’m gonna take Sports by the neck and shake it - mark my words!”
A deathly silence fell at the back of the Almera, my mouth was agape, Nigel stopped complaining about his sore legs, Steve even stopped munching his lump of choc-biscuit cake, we all looked at Geoff, we saw THE LOOK, we knew he meant business:Rapid Rooney 2007 – prepare for the power!

Christian had a few nasty impacts (big aaaggghhhh!!!) that left him battered, bruised & bloody but still able to finish and keep smiling - that's the spirit Christian-unbreakable!
Shane had shaken-off any remaining ghosts of his crash and had a fun few laps with those big forks of his in Sports.

Sean was heroically trying to shake-off sickness during the week but it continued to plague him and he retired early (not that you'd think he wasn't well when you see video clip I have of him & Morgan hammering it along a singletrack section!).

Nigel spent a long time getting tips on action photography from some pro camera guy, so expect to see some great camera work from him soon!

The Eurospar was the venue for sambos and chips before hitting the LONNNGGGG road home - man that traffic jam in Newry was a killer! Newry is no longer myself & Steve's most favourite northern town (as if it ever was....)

Final XC on this years calendar is IMBRCs hosting at Slade Valley, a venue we are all familiar with, but the IMBRC track-masters are shaping it up to be a very different course to the Dash so all of MAD should put in a few weeks of intense training on the course to finish the season strongly and bag as many podium places as possible!

Killaloe NPS Round 5 30 July 2006

2006-07-31T05:29:00.000-07:00

My legs are still stinging from those awesome climbs we were confronted with on Sunday at Crag Wood in Killaloe.
Fair play to the MBUL guys, they took a bit of a risk with this really-long-tough uphill then hang-on-for-your-life downhill course, a lot different to what I’ve ridden this year.
I was cursing it as I was riding it, but in the 2 hour drive home I realised that I actually really liked it.
The downhill (and I mean DOWNHILL) was steep, rooty and rocky in many places, but thankfully stayed dry for the Sports riders, the groups that followed us were not so lucky….a heavy downpour just at the end of sports signalled a tough race for any one
out on the course after sports.
I didn’t do a practice lap as I ran outta time, just as well maybe coz I would’ve been sapped of energy for the race.

Got off to an ok start and settled into a good pace after a few mins, the climbs seemed never to end, the speedo/heart-monitor was flashing 186bpm - 2bpm over my theoretical max, so I knew I was pushing hard.

Finally it was time for the heart-stopping downhill – switched the suss to full-bouncy and down I went, found it hard to get into the flow for the first minute but them when I hung my rear-end over the back of the bike things were much better – there were these strange “Woo-Woo” signs at various sections – dunno what that was about, but finally it ended with a road section leading back into the forest entrance.
I managed to stay on the bike for nearly the whole race, one section caught me out as a lapse in concentration resulted in some over-the-bars silliness but I had a great landing and was up on the bike a few seconds later.
I got passed when I was on the ground by Darragh from MBUL I think, but was able to catch him later on the road section:
I saw Darragh about 200yds ahead of me as I exited the forest, so I locked-out the fork and shock, changed up to the big ring (which performed well as it’s still missing 4 or 5 teeth from Kilruddery), got my ass outta the saddle and sprinted until I felt I was gonna get sick – just at that point I caught him going back into the forest.
It was so funny – he looked behind first time and saw me way behind him and thought his position was secure, 2nd time he looked he did a double-take and saw I was 10 yds away- down went his head and faster went the pedals but I was determined to catch him and I did.

He looked at me and said “sports or experts?” I gasped “sports” and he just shook his head, I managed to stretch the gap to the finish line. I think a lot of spectators were amused by how wrecked everyone looked who came over the finish line…
Paddy and Gar from IMBRC had a good battle with Gar finishing just ahead of Paddy, Morgan had derailleur woes resulting in having to retire due to a snapped chain, Tom stormed through the downpour to a big cheer from the crowd – I think he’s really got the taste for racing now,

Mel totally kicked-ass with her Elite womens win with Ryan finishing 3rd in experts.
All in all, a great day out, with more fun to come in Castlewellan on 13th Aug, looking forward to a big MAD turn out and more podium positions that day!

MAD webpage:

http://www.madmtb.com

Photos from MBUL:

http://www.skynet.ie/~mtbclub/Photogallery/HolyTrail30-07-2006/

Kilruddery NPS Round 4 July 16 2006

2006-07-16T10:51:00.000-07:00

Wow - such an amount of sunshine on both practice and race day!
Actually, nearly too much sun, but I'm not gonna complain as it put everyone in a great mood and a huge amount of riders turned-out for the race.

Saturday(practice laps):
The course was open for practice laps on Sat with a good contingent of MAD and other riders showing-up for a few laps to get a feel for the course.
The course itself was advised as being ~5.3km but was actually closer to 6.4km.

Steve, Geoff and myself arrived about 2:30 after a hot car journey (no air con!) and an unplanned ‘detour’ through Bray, supposedly to check out the local talent, not much on show though…

A few MAD riders were there already so we wasted no time in gittin' goin'.

The course overall was really good, with some great singletracking through the wood and some quite technical rocky/banked sections.
Steve had a nasty technical with a snapped & bent chain and bent derailleur, Geoff’s front shifter lever exploded leaving him on the granny ring--aaaggh!.
Steve’s woes were resolved by a quick trip to Hamiltons’ place who supplied him with spare wheel/chain/rear mech, so he was motoring again after a brief pit-stop.

Geoff, Judith & myself did a lap at a nice easy pace, no impossible obstacles encountered but there were a few of note that could be tricky during the race so we made careful note.

My 2nd lap was with the Stevie lad & Hamilton at a faster pace, I clocked it at
27 mins 40 secs, Hamilton reckoned 26 mins, think it was closer to the 27 myself. (my race lap times ended up being 26:34 and 26:54 so I think my gauge of 27+mins was accurate).

Sunday (race):
Even hotter on Sunday than Saturday so I made sure to get in as much liquid as possible before the off. There were a huge bunch of Sports riders and a lot of us got stuck at the back – lousy place to be!
We sweated for a few mins until the whistle blew and then we were off!
A big bunch-up at the first ‘obstacle’ (a small bank which even a granny on a high-nelly could get over) caused a major jam resulting in the leading pack pulling away - crap!.

I got over the bank and then hung-in behind a few riders until the first fire-road where I passed 2 or 3 of them (a first for me in a race). Overall my race went well with no mistakes made, skipped the bombhole first time round (dunno why – maybe coz there was no one behind/in-front and I didn’t want to make any mistakes) but took it second lap as Paddy was chasing hard and I needed to make up a few seconds if I could.
For the last part of the last lap I was just ahead of Paddy after swapping position several times, and he wasn’t letting me let-up the pace so I held-out and finished in 11th position (out of 56 riders in total) which I was really happy with.
Got some great encouragement from Paddy in the last lap which really helped

Then it was time for a quick change out of very sweaty clothes, support the lads in the experts race, then back to the MAD tent for a kick-ass bar-b-q courtesy of the advanced catering skills of Sheikh Sheif/Chef Stevey Scrivener (swear he's done this kinda thing before!)

Slade Valley MAD Dash July 2006

2006-07-10T01:23:00.000-07:00

Sun 9th July saw the culmination and results of a massive effort by the MAD club in a short space of time to run an open XC race.
Many evenings of chopping, raking, root pulling, nettle/gorse/insect stings were put in to create a track we were proud of and which received great feedback from loads of riders on the day and afterwards in the various forums.
Unfortunately, heavy rain the night before mad some sections quite soft and slimey, resulting in copious amounts of 'muck-in-your-face' wheelspin, but the majority of the track fared ok, and the strong wind which was blowing over the never-ending-trail helped dry-out sections quite nicely by the middle of the experts race.

The Happy Valley in particular was a lot of fun for most people (some riders opted for the chicken run - cowards!!). I crashed the first time down - face planted the nice soft bank, got back up straight away, head-down and hammered-on.2nd time down was still sketchy but manged to say upright.Crossed the finish line in 9th place which was an improvement on previous races in Lugalla and Ballinastoe.

This Sunday (16 Jul) sees the NPS XC series run on private ground in Kilruddery Bray.

Weather looks like it's gonna be sunny for the weekend, which will be a welcome change as the last 3 races have been soggy affairs - especially Lumpers and Lugalla - man it just lashed down on us all day in those venues - still were great fun though!!

Video: http://www.zippyvideos.com/2267908175733996/mad_dash/