Irish National Mountain Bike Marathon Championships 2014
Report by BVK
Well that was an experience.
Almost 24 hours later and I am still unsure whether the thumping headache I have is from exhaustion, dehydration or using my face as a makeshift brake early on lap 2. It’s probably a combination of all three in truth.
The race started OK, with some less than familiar faces smashing off at a rate of knots as if they were beginning a cyclocross race. The comical laughter soon abated as we hit the first section of woods on the pre-loop and those excited few in front were having major problems with the terrain, so I decided early to cut them all off in one fell swoop up the inside of a corner. Except the ground off the beaten track was very loose and I promptly fell over. Dislodging my class wee spares pack on my seat post.
Determined though, I pushed past these lads and on up the first big hill. Sherlock and Montgomery are already as good as gone. Onto the first wee section of trail centre and it is pretty rough. So rough my dislodged race pack explodes all over the trail. Superb. The fear of a dreaded puncture goes up a level or 3. The first lap was pretty good in so much that I felt good on the climbs and rode pretty well, but struggled on the trail centre descents which I hold no love for. Sitting in 3rd place at Batts wall with Ray O’Shaunnessy just beside me and Graham Boyd in pursuit. Ray went down the mountain side like something from ski Sunday. Graham caught me by the bottom and pushed past on the rest of the loop.
As lap 2 started I could see I was making a bit of time up on those two again up the big fire road climb, they were only about 30 seconds ahead at this stage so I was confident I could get back up to them. However, entering the section where my pack fell off earlier I noticed my tube on the ground and my tyre levers, excitedly I scanned the trail for my beloved lezyne pump. Yea, I should really have been looking where I was going and seen the tree instead of clipping my bars off it and then my knee off the stem. Absolute agony. Ss the knee pain started to subside, I started to try and power on to chase the lost cause. Taking a few risks too many on the faster sections I ended up driving my bike straight into one of those lovely trail anchor rocks. Over the bars and face into the ground quicker than Nathan Mullan after a white van. I lay in the ditch for a few minutes wheezing. I have a permanent “NIMRAG” stamped on my chest now from the heart rate monitor. The Marshall at the end of that section assured me it didn’t look as bad as it felt so I rode on not wanting to let the fans down. And anyway, a bit of facial blood makes you look double hard? Right?
Managed to digest the zipvit SOS gel thing – and the next hour and 45 minutes passed by in a haze of a caffeine induced high. I caught back up with Banbridge’s Joe Penny who had left me to die in the ditch, and managed to ride on to 5th place. I would have struggled to do much better without the crash and the wee lie down, but my face definitely wouldn’t hurt as much this morning.
Well done to all the Dromara guys taking part, Adi Booth and John Shanks in 17th and 18th places in Masters. Obviously holding hands round the route. Paul Mawhirt with an excellent 13th place in the super strong Vets category. Richard Campbell also coming in 22nd in Vets. Robert Davison came in a strong 8th place in super vets, with Mike Barton also using the super vets race as prep for the 3 peaks, and in true Mo Farrah style – stuck to the training plan with a lap to go!
Result of the day was Peter Davison, 2nd in the Fun Loop. Essentially the Youth section with a few older guys sand bagging looking a last pay day.
Results can be found here
