NPS2- Scriv Vs The Nagles

Myself and Fergal loaded up the Venga Bus on Sunday morning for the trip down to Fermoy, Corrrk for NPS2 on what was rumored to be a fairly brutal and demanding course. As I was riding shot gun, we managed to get lost. I don’t think I’ve ever been driving/in a car when we didn’t get lost. I once got lost going to Spar down the road. It’s a skill I’ve inheriated I think. Anyway, with my bad sense of direction we didn’t have time for a practice lap and it looked just as well. I first saw Oisin Boydell frowning and that guy always has a smile on his face and then people started to fill me in on just how bad it was- grim.

The race started bang on time and gridded- not that it would matter with 15minutes of open climbing ahead! We started up the fireroad and I took it very easy. I didn’t want to blow up as I had no idea how long the climb went on for and slipped back down the field. From the second lap on I started to make up places on the sketch descents but although I had good bursts of power on the steep climbs, my back was too painful to keep it up. Getting out of the saddle was definitely less painful but with the course being so brutally rough, I couldn’t do this much. Lesson 1: I’m going to do a shit load of core work in the next two weeks.

The course consisted of a long climb, a bog transition through some swimming pool-deep puddles and a ‘hang on for dear life’ rocky descent back to the start. I was really enjoying the descent in a weird kind of way. It was completely out of control and dangerous but fun if you got a couple of nice lines. Still, it didn’t make up for the frankly, shit, rest of the track.


(Photo: Richie Byrne)

Back to the race, after the first lap I developed a tail in the form of Gene from MAD. The little fecker was glued to my wheel the whole way round til I made my move on the last lap. I put in a good effort on the final climb before the descent and let it all hang out on the descent to be able to cruise up to the finish. I got to the fireroad and started spinning up and heard something behind me. Ah, not to worry, it’s only that Xmtb junior. But then everybody in the feed station started cheering on lads, plural. Shit. He made his move with about 200 meters to go and I had to let him go.

14th place- fairly crap eh? I was expecting to do a lot better in racing this year so here’s my excuses as I see them. S2 is a far cry from experts. These boys are the real deal with all of them putting in a serious amount of training and taking it very seriously. My back/hips are in a state as soon as I start going hard. I thought this would go away after the first couple of races but I’m going to do some serious work on it. I haven’t had my day yet. I had a couple of them last year and I’ve had a couple of them when I’m out training. ‘Your day’- That feeling that you’re Sam Hill on descents and Absolon on climbs. I’ll have it yet and with the new bike coming I’ll be more determined than ever. I’m slightly down but certainly not out. I’ll have a win in this damn NPS if it’s the last thing I do. Mean words eh?