2011 Irish Cyclocross Championships - Jan 2011

Grrrr, a lack of form before Christmas (booze, chocolates), coupled with a popped back, meant I chose to skip the nationals this year. Pity, as the reigning champ, I should have raced, but I would have been so far off the pace that I didn’t want to go. By the looks of it, it was a class race. Bob went from the gun, leaving Conor and Evan to duke it out. Congrats to bob, and Evan for outsprinting Conor for 2nd. Congrats also to the race organizers, the event looked great, very well setup etc. No more cross now until next year, time to get fit for the MTB!!!

Conor and Ryan go at it!

Full report here
http://www.ulstercyclocross.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=29:national-championships-2011&catid=32:national-championships-2011&Itemid=30

Dec 2010 – MONSTER Snow

Mega snow here for the couple of weeks before Christmas. We had 1 day of no snow, then it went nuts again. 2ft of snow in my back garden! Biking was difficult,

I had an amazing spin with Robin and Vinzer over knocknagun on the Sunday of little snow. It was very cold, and we decided to go up knocknagun and hope that the bog was frozen. We actually rode on a 4 mtr wide track of deep snow all along the Dublin/wicklow border over the bog. Frozen solid, 40kms/hr…..like being on a ski slope…amazing.

I did a couple more spin in the snow, not too much. A great cross session on Stephens day in the snow with Robin, Mark and Andy. Then I popped my back fixing the tap in the kitchen, typical….knocked me out for a couple of week.

On the dublin/wicklow border. See the track go off behind my left shoulder, mad

Slidery roads

Back of Marley park

BikePure GP – Dec 12th 2010 – Belurgan Estate, Co. Louth

A tough few weeks prior to this race was not the best prep, plus lots of snow had made training difficult. Evan and I drove to Belurgan, just outside Dundalk for the “BikePure GP”, or the “McCorey Cup” as I like to call it.

Conditions were tough, the snow had melted the day before, and the course had to be modified to avoid lethal icy sections. That meant we were left with a shortish course, and lot and lots of mud!

As Bob and Conor were missing, I was going to be a head to head with Evan and me. At the end of lap one, it was me, Evan and super junior Cormac Clarke shlompin through the shlomp. I was suffering, and Evan was pushing the pace. On lap 3, Evan got a gap on the kicker, but got back on just before he flatted……not a good run for poor old Evan. For the rest of the race, I kept the head down, stayed out of trouble, and enjoyed the slidery conditions.

Congrats to Colm Ahern in 2nd, a solid ride. Evan suffered another flat and came in 3rd. Not long after that Cormac got 4th place….one to watch for sure.

Thanks to Myles, Dave and the team for a fun day out….the couple of Erdingers stuffed in the pockets went down well that night!