Leinster League Round 2 – Carlingford

With a disappointing performance last week in Bunclody, I decided early in the week that I was going to enter in Carlingford. I have gotten on well on Cuchulainn's tracks in the past as they tend to be fairly off camber and techie which I’m better at than climbing. Their new track in Bellurgan Park was no exception and made all the more difficult with all the rain we’ve had this week. I luckily got a lift up with Mark on Sunday morning and went for a practice lap. Straight away I was feeling much better on the bike- both technically and speed wise. I think some of this is down to me fitting a riser bar and getting rid of the old tiny flat one.


First impressions of the course were grim to say the least! After a spin around a field it went up an extremely muddy fireroad, into a really nice techie climb and then into a ridiculously muddy fireroad that was mostly un-rideable. As I was trudging through the ankle deep shlomp I was seriously considering asking Mark if he’d be up for going home. The rest of the course winded its way through off camber deciduous forest with tones of bridges, kickers and dodgy drops thrown in. I got back in 45minutes and the race was set to be three laps. I’d prepared for a grim one…

The race started pretty steady as there were only four experts. I was jostling for position with an epic and worc guy until they took a slightly wrong turn and the epic guy dropped off a bit. The first lap and a half was constant trading places between me and the worcie until I finally got away from him on one of the slippy climbs. The key to the course was keeping momentum as once I dabbed, it was impossible to get traction again with the mud. One of the drops towards the end of the lap was particularly mental. It was an off camber, lethal run in to a 3foot rock drop off between a boulder and a three stump. On the practice lap I ended up walking it but when racing I rode it every time. (almost coming to a stop as the landing was so harsh!) There was just too many marshals and spectators around it not to... :-)

Over the next lap and a half I had some good battles with some vets and masters and really enjoyed myself. I found myself clearing new sections each lap and felt brilliant. After 1.45 of racing I rolled in to take my first ever experts win. I reckon I would have come third in masters too which I’m delighted about. My lap times were nice and consistent which was the way I was feeling- 33,34,35mins. When that course dries out I can see it rivaling Djouce and Castlewllan put together!

Huge thanks to Phil and Aine for being perfect as always in the feedzone. It couldn’t have been easy with the really fast run into the bottle grab! Exams start in exactly three weeks so I’m gonna be stuck in the library all this week. I’m finishing work in 53 Degrees North on Saturday so I don’t really have the time to race the first NPS on Sunday but I’d only be lying if I said I wasn’t gonna be there!