The Irish National Downhill Championships took place last weekend at a brand new venue, just outside the Heritage town of Cahir in Co. Tipperary, organised by 021racing from Cork.
 
As the song goes ” It’s a long way to Tipperary”, but damn was it worth it!  For once the weather did it’s best and joined the party, unlike the pissy humour it’s been in all year!
 
Riders were on site from the Wednesday before the event, to ensure they got maximum practice and it paid off for some riders namely Colin Ross and Carl Young, who both won their respective categories!  Scaragh woods offers a great venue with a spectacular finish and parking all in the same area, which helps create an electric atmosphere, which was also made better by the presence of Lakis the Red Bull DJ, in his awesome converted US army Dodge truck, he kept spectator’s and riders entertained with his cool tunes.  Nacc Event’s from the UK once again did a great job with the live timing and with commentator Ian Brown on the PA, everyone was kept up to speed with the latest times and reults.
 
 The lovely Red Bull girls kept over 180 racer’s energised in the heat and added a nice touch of glamour to 2008’s most prestigious mountain bike event, Red Bull also provided the Red Bull arch and riders could have been forgiven for thinking they were competing at an International event, it was definitely a big step up from the NPS.  The basics were right and the track was class!  As the Irish Team Manager Joe Ward described it, you need big balls, serious fitness, you need to be able to jump well and corner well.  It definitely tested the best riders all round abilities.  The fastest times in seeding were all around the 2.05 mark, but riders were winding their way through the trees at over 25mph all the way down!
 
Many riders got six and seven runs in practice due to the superb fleet of Mercedes Sprinter LWB vans that were shuttling the riders in record speed!
 
The racing got under way at midday on Sunday.  The start had spectacular views of the Galtee mountains.  The first category to go was the U14’s and man were these guys flying!
Dan Sheridan took the win with an amazing time of 2.13!  Cameron Cornforth from 021racing took 2nd place ahead of Christopher Mclinchey in 3rd.
 
U16’s next, Gavin Carroll was the young man who dominated this category, he put 5 second’s between himself and 2nd placed Taryan Lewis from Killarney.  Micheal McCaann rounded off the podium in 3rd.
 
The Super Vets were up next and to be honest I hope I’m still able to ride a bike when I’m their age, let alone race!  Tom Sheridan wrapped it up, he couldn’t let Dan enjoy being # 1 on his own!  Peter Popham flew into 2nd, followed by CRC’s Derek Cowan.
 
The Veterans was very competitive this year and it could have been anyones race!  In the end Carl Banana Man Young nodged it ahead of Stevie Davidson with the Flying Deise man from 021racing Dave Mc Manus in 3rd.
 
Into the Masters and with the absence of current National Champ Micheal Cowan, due to a shattered pelvis, new man Glyn O Brien was in Flying form taking the win ahead of 021racings John Thompson (JT), with Dale Mc Mullan from CRC in 3rd.
 
The Sport category was won by a man who has returned to the sport after a long absence, Paul MeGarry took the honours ahead of IMBRC’s Gareth O Rielly with James O Reilly in 3rd.
 
The Senior category was won in a super time of 2.06 by Dave Egan, who said he has never had such an amazing run in his whole life!  Welcome to Pro- Elite Dave!  2nd spot was taken by the ever improving Cathal Hickey from Killarney with Brian Cooney in 3rd spot.
 
There was a great turnout in ladies and your 08 National Champion is the Flying Doctor Maeve Baxter,  Aoife O Donoghue from DCU was 2nd followed by Nathalie Jedda in 3rd.
 
The Juniors was tight, but the rider of the year Ewan Doherty retained his National title ahead of his closest rival and Irish team mate Seanan O Riordain, with Wee Johnny McKee in 3rd after a superb race!
 
THe Elites was quite open, with Ben Reid deciding to rest ahead of his World Cup campaign in Canada.  The man who made it count was Colin Ross and the Wolfe brothers duked it out for the remaining podium spots, with older brother Ger knocking Dan into 3rd.  Gareth Mckee continued his impressive season with a fine 4th place ahead of 021racing’s Greg O’ Keeffe in 5th, just beating his best friend and team mate Tom Power into 6th!
 
It’s all over another year, Ten riders get the pleasure of carrying the moniker of National Champ for a year!
 
Thanks again to all involved in organising the event and all the riders who supported it!

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Round 3 of the Irish NPS will be held at Clashnacrona Woods just outside Dunmanway in Co. Cork this weekend 3/4 May.

Riders will be treated to a brand new track, which should take the fastest riders over 2 minutes! The course will be starting at the very top of the hill, where riders will get a very nice fast open section that is littered with double jumps, ski jumps and a step up! You then hit a left hand berm at about 30mph before braking hard and dropping right into the woods. This section is very steep, with some nice banked turns, roots and rocks. As riders make there way down the course they will have to negotiate some ticky off camber, lots of roots, rocks, drops, berms with very little pedalling! There are no silly gaps, this is just a proper fast technical DH course, that will test the best riders!

We have cleared a lot of parking spaces either side of the fireroad as you drive in from the main entrance. Please park responsibly and keep it tight! We are hoping to have everyone parking at the bottom of the track close to the finish, catering, first aid, podium, sign on etc. This will also help with the speed of the uplifts. This will also create a better atmosphere for the weekend. Camper vans will be catered for as well.

This event will have live timing, NACC events are travelling from the UK to look after the event.

Sign on will be open from 8.30 on Saturday and will be closed at 9.30am on Sunday.

Practice on Saturday 10.00 to 1.00 and 2.00 to 5.00.
Practice on Sunday 9.00 to 11.00.
Race starts at 12.00.

Entry fee, all Senior riders 50 euro and underage riders 35 euro. One day licences will be available.

We look forward to seeing everyone in Cork, for what promises to be a great weekends racing!

Cheers

Rory

The 2008 international downhill mountain bike season, got kick started in Gouveia, Portugal nestled in the Estrella mountain range last weekend!

The Maxxis Cup race has now established itself as the first proper race of the season and it attracts a huge entry from all over Europe.

A lot of Irish made the trip this year, with a strong contingent of boys from the North and D4 as well as an army from 021racing! 021 was represented by greg, Sean, James, Kevin Ryan, Kevin Boyd, Jason Murphy, Ben Mullens, Rob Davis and Rory! The trip began as we flew to Madrid, rented our Mini Bus and drove quite rapidily to Portugal. We enjoyed two full days of practice in sunny weather and we turned our mini bus in to our uplift and the spin to the top was nearly as enjoyable as coming down the mountain!

A partially new track greeted all the riders and what a track! Flat to the mat for nearly 3.30min if you were going well. The course was littered with ski jumps, drops, rock gardens and flat out corners.

First rider down was 021 new boy Rob Davis, who was riding like his old skool days, flat out but likes to hit the eject button! Rob got caught out trying to double a tricky drop and hurt his wrist quite bad, no racing for rob. Sean was next to come a cropper in the same place as Rob, the compression sent Sean flying over the bars and on to his head, also aggravating his long term ankle injury.

Sunday morning we were greeted to some wintery weather and qualifying. The top 150 fastest riders would go through to the main event. There were over 400 entries!! Everyone in 021 qualified except for the two Kevins and James who was to busy looking after Brendan Fairclough’s Iron Horse (ranked 12th in the world!!) as well as all the dublin boys, as all their bikes were hanging!

In the final, Jason missed his run, Rory 92nd,went quicker by 6 seconds with a 3.15, Greg 38th, improved with a comfortable 3.03 after crashing in his qualifying run, Ben 117th, had a bit of a crash, Sean, DNS, as his ankle was wrecked. Ben Reid crashed out, the first time in a long time, just goes to show it can happen to anyone! Gee Atherton destroyed the field by 4 seconds, the man is a beast! Dan Atherton 2nd and Cedric Gracia in 3rd.

At the end of the day, 021 enjoyed a successful weekend and an eventful night in Madrid on Sunday! If your talking to Ben Mullen, ask him what he thinks of Lady Boys!!!!

Heres something that will be of interest in a great part of Italy.

“From May 2008, Irish international Olympic rider, Tarja Owens, is leading mountain bike guided holidays in the beautiful mountains surrounding Lake Garda, in Northern Italy.

If you want a relaxing weekend cycling through the Vineyards of the Trentino Valley, or a weeks specific mountain bike tutoring with an Olympic athlete on some of the best trails in Europe, your holiday will be tailored to your needs.

As a once off, All Mountain Experience is offering the opportunity to preview this years World Championships Downhill and 4x course. From 2nd until 4th May you can partake in a test-event held on the course. Or perhaps you prefer to experience the thrill of the 2008 World Mountain Bike Championships races in June. All Mountain Experience will organise it all, you just have to book your flight and arrive.

See the site : www.AllMountainExperience.com for our exclusive offers, or mail tarja@allmountainexperience.com“

Timed runs of the track were done over Christmas. Rory has some up in the forum. The order was 1st Greg 2nd Rory 3rd Damien and 4th Sean. It was wet and greasy and it looks like in the dry quickest time will be around the 36 second mark I would think. A day will be organised soon for team members to set there times so everyone has the same conditions.

Happy Christmas to one and to all. The team will be out riding a number of days over the Christmas period. Keep an eye on the forum as for when or ring the usual people.

Here we go,

I haven’t got the foggiest idea where to start writing?

I suppose I can start with the last race of the season, at the Whitehorse organised by 021racing’s Tom power.

As usual Tom promised and delivered a great event. The Whitehorse Forest is one of the sketciest woods in Ireland, it is incredibly difficult to ride in the dry and if it rains the soil feels like your riding on ice!

The toughest section of this years course was the Rock Slab, this was a steep rock Slab section, that had three runs down it and it had a very hard entry to it, quite a few people fell victim to it.

There was 116 riders who took part in this end of season race, some chasing points to become the overall NPS winner, like Karl ‘ BananaMan’ Young who won on the day and the overall series. Tom employed the services of NACC Event’s from the UK to provide Live Timing, something we hope to see a lot more of at next years races! Tom couldn’t quite manage the fastest time of the day and handed victory to Dan Wolfe in the Elite category with a great time of 1.36. Ewan Doherty, showed why he deserved to be wearing the Irish National Champs jersey, had a fine win in the Junior category.

There has been a lot of positives from the 2007 Downhill Mountain Bike season. One of the best things, was the the Irish Downhill Team, where Joe Ward and Glyn O Brien transformed a shoddy outfit into the professional setup witnessed at The World Championships in Fort William in September. There have been some great results achieved by Irish riders this season. Ben reid finished 6th at the European Champs in Greece, 15th at the World Champs in Fort William, has had a top 10 at the World Cup in Schladaming, Austria! Greg O’ Keeffe enjoyed his first year as an Elite rider and set some good times, most notable results for Greg were 16th place at the European Champs in Greece, 44th at the World Champs, when he could barely walk! 1st place at round 3 Of the Welsh Dragon Series in Mynnd Du and 3rd place at the SDA race in Fort William. Glyn O Brien seems to be getting faster as he gets older and finished an increible 2nd place at the World Masters Championships in Pra loup, France.

Back to the local scene, everyone is anxiously waiting for the Ballyhouras to open, they are months behind schedule, but promise to offer some of the best trails around!