NPS Round 6- Lady Dixon Park

Have had a really busy week with work so only getting around to writing this up now. Myself and Fergal headed up to my penultimate round (before I go away) of the XC NPS. The course was rumoured to be very un technical and unridable in the wet and it lived up to one of these rumours. Thankfully, we were greeted to blue skies and 26 degree+ temperatures so the track was bone dry throughout. It was a long lap with the first half comprising of twisty singletrack and the second of a snaking climb through a seeming never ending grass land. I had a decent start and was sitting in 8th or so place with Dave Askin of Lucan CC. We quickly caught up with some other experts and passed them and motored the first 4 laps of 6. I don't think there was ever a minute when my front wheel wasn't inches from his back. Really relentless stuff especially climbing through the grass in the baking sun. Towards the end of the 4th lap, Dave put in a big effort and put a 30second gap on me. I figured that was it for the race but during the 5th lap, I caught up with him on the singletrack and put on my best 'I'm not in much pain at all, I could keep this pace up all day if I wanted face' as I passed him. My acting skills seemed to work as he dropped off and I got a few minutes gap. That was pretty much it for the race, I didn't have the power to catch up with the two lads (Ross and Dave-O) in front and was managing to keep my lead on Dave behind me. The lack of someone to race really showed in my lap times with the last two being a couple of minutes slower than the rest.

Gene (a master from MAD) started chasing me down at the start of the grass climb on the last lap. I pushed as hard as I could to keep him at bay but with 200m to go, he powered passed me. I'll get him next time! I finished with my best result of the season, 5th. I was a good few minutes off first place but slightly reassuringly, 3rd and 4th place were only a few minutes ahead so might be able to bridge that gap by MAD Nps 7. Big thanks to Alison Boydell for doing a great job doing bottles and Trinity for supporting me. I'll post a couple of pictures once I track down the photographers.