Garvagh MTB XC

Report by BVK:
Another great NPS and UXC round yesterday at Garvagh. Very enjoyable course and conditions were desert like with dust kicking up everywhere instead of gloopy mud.
The S1 race went off incredibly hard. No Seymour or Aiken on the line so I think a few likely lads were keen to get away. I was hanging on the back of the lead out train by the skin of my teeth for the first few minutes. A mistake by one of the guys ahead on the first singletrack section had the rest of us off and running with Adair, McKee and Prendiville disappearing off already with a 20second lead. Never to be seen again.

I ended up racing with Max Power, Graham Boyd and James Curry for a few laps. Chasing down Tomasz Michalski just out ahead. I made a mistake on a rock garden and had to jump off on lap 3 and Graham got a gap on me and drove on up the course to clubmate Tomasz. The pair then proceeded to tag team me and put more time into me on lap 4 when I could feel the fade kicking in. I got it together on the last lap and pushed on hard finally bridging back to Tomasz 2 hours after he had slipped off initially. Graham was pushing on just ahead of him by another 20 seconds. The big Pole managed to hold me off and hit the final fireroad a few seconds before me, making all the difference. I gave the final sprint so much I completely misjudged the final bend and was drifting precariously close to the barriers – but unlike recent form – i managed to stay upright 😀

6th Place finish.
Happier with the performance than the placing.

In the other races, John Shanks enjoyed his moneys worth of laps in Senior 2.
Brian Wilson and Adrian Booth were both pipped by Brother Brian of Lakeland Cycles in the Senior 3 race… Sharpen up lads!
Paul Watson showed them how it was done and held him off to the line. Robert Davison was unfortunate to puncture on lap 1.
Peter Ritchie and Gibson Chambers slugged it out in S4 with Peter coming in a few seconds ahead. Richard Cowan woke up on Sunday and decided to go Mountain biking. It took him so long to find the bike at the back of the garage he hadn’t time to do much practise but had an enjoyable day regardless, I think?

Thank goodness for the Wilson Kids though. Flying the flag for the club on the podium. Kelly taking 3rd in U14 Girls and Ben 2nd in U12 Boys – a very tight race.

Full Results here:
www.j15ulsterxc.dromaracc.co.uk/Results/UlsterXC_Round_4_2014_Garvagh.htm

Report by RC:

This road racing can get a bit tiresome so Barry tells me MTB’ing is the way to go. So into the bike shed I go and head to the back where under a pile of dust I pull the MTB out. Due to a delay heading to Garvagh my course recce was reduced to trying to get around a lap before the start. Clearly I had no idea how long a lap was as by the time i got back everyone was lined up so back of the queue I go for the S4 race. Having waved at my support team I shot off passing riders up the first uphill gravel section – thinking this MTBing is not that difficult. Finally a sudden left into a gap in a hedge and we were in the forest. From here my MTB skills were now shown to be not quite up to scratch as riders pass me. As I started to regret this chosen event I got advice for the next epic climb from behind “Dont you [add own expletive] dare stop on this hill, ride fast and hard  until the top.” – This turned out to be great advice as I made it down the vertical drop and up the hill still on the bike. There is a lesson there somewhere.

The second lap seemed harder than the first but that was because my legs had started screaming and were delighted to see the finish. For those thinking of attempting MTBing you will get to appeciate that an hour on the MTB is a great fitness work out. Need get coaching from Kelly and Ben as they seem to be flying at the minute.