Team Focus MTB 2010/2011

Saturday, October 16, 2010

New team cyclocross bike – Mares CX1

There is nothing better than a good cross bike. I got the new team cross bike yesterday, Focus Mares CX1. Wow, what a bike. The tube shapes are really extreme, they would be extreme if they were on a mountain bike! BB30, 1 ½ lower headtube bearing, deep section carbons, Sram Force….all real nice. Very light and very stiff! I went straight out and put it to test on the Tuesday night cross training spin in Knocklyon.

Cross really is a great sport. 1 hour of flat out sliding and sprinting. I am not riding great at the moment, but I hope to improve a lot in time to defend my nationals title in January…..loads of time!! Cants wait to put it to test on Sunday at round 2 of the SuperCross Cup.

Thank, again, to Aidan and Ross in Eurocycles for the bike.

Yum!

Roc D’Azur – Cote D’Azur, France – 7th – 11th Oct 2010

My annual pilgrimage to the Roc, the worlds largest MTB event. 140,000 MTB nuts descend on Frejus to enjoy everything French, Sunny, Sandy and everything with wheels. This was more of a holiday then a racing trip….Ava was at home, so it was a time for Hazel and I to take it easy…….of course that was not going to happen! I did the masters race on Friday. 42kms, flat out! 1500 riders. I finished 21^st, 14^th in category. Pretty short, pretty easy going, a bit of form and a top 5 would be very easy……maybe in a couple of years.

On Saturday we spent the day cheering on the other riders. Coyner and Judy in the Tandem and Michelle in the 20km race….her first race! Both did very well.

Sunday came, and I was on the 3^rd row of the grid for the Roc. I was in incredible company, world champs, Olympic champs, national champs, they were all around me! Very exciting. Then to the start…..helicopter bussing, crouds cheering……10 seconds. I watched the starters finger, I saw the twitch before I heard the sound…..off we go, a good start, top 20 but by the road, on Burry Standers wheel (gulp). The next 5km was flat out, 42*11, on the back of the lead group….savage. Once we hit the first hill though, I backed off, right off…a long race, and I wanted to enjoy it.

The course was amazing, the best yet. Lots of nice climbs and descents, not too rough….great fun. With 20km to go, I was in a group of solid guys….we hit the fireroad kicker after the road, abut 3000 people on the hill, the noise was unreal, goosebumps all over. Amazing, I kicked and caught a few more guys, loving the singletrack into the finish.

110^th, not too bad, I enjoyed it, that was the main thing.Next irish home was Vinzer, followed closely by Sutty, very competitive. Well done to all the Irish, a great crew and some great performance. Ray stuck his head in a tree and pulled half his face off, lucky to keep his right ear, get better soon. Sign language from now on with him!Hazel and I then took off to check out Monaco for the afternoon, a coffee in Casino square, the back to the Badabing bar for mega pints and dancing until later……..Roc on!

All the Irish ready to go before the masters race

I rode the beach this year, both ways (durty)

The front boys booting it near the finish!

Paul and Judy enjoying the tandem!

Kev had a great ride.....

Eurocycles demo demo day – Ballinstoe – 12 September 2010

Today, Aidan and Ross from Eurocycles, gathered a number of Eurocycles clients for the first of (hopefully) many demo days, hence the demo demo day. Garmin were there to provide the latest sat nav units for riders who were interested. 20 riders of all abilities left Ballinastoe to do 1 lap of the circuit. It was great to chat to everyone, we talked about position, setup, gear choice, tyres, riding climbs and decents.

All in all, a great experience. We plan to do a number of these in 2011, opening them up to all riders. We also hope to have a suite of Focus bikes for riders to try out. Exciting stuff!

Cooley Thriller – Carlingford - 28th August 2010

I love the McCabes…….Gerry, Jonny and Deco. 3 brothers, crazy about all things extreme. Only someone special would take on organizing an event like this.

I was really looking forward to this race. 55km of singletracking in the Cooley mountains, deadly. Robin picked me up early on sat morning, and 1:15 later we were in Carlingford. A little later 250 riders rolled out of the village, and up the main fireroad. Robin and I were chatting in about 20^th place, while everyone in front was real serious, attacking, killing themselves….jez lads, relax, 3 hours to go!

After the first descent, Aido, Ray, Robin, Glenn, Richi and I were together, tackling the long climb to the aerials to Ravensdale. Down the tellytubbies descent, it was just Robin, Ray, and I. Great fun, although, I was suffering on the next climb! Ray was buzzing, bootin it on the descents, and attackin on the climb. I dropped off a bit towards the end of the race, sufferin with tiredness and fatness.

I finished up 3^rd, not too far behind. A great event, open top singletrack hills and proper mountains. A credit to the McCabes and their team of helpers.

3 hours later, 4 leffes and 4 hoegdardens, we hit Carlingford for a few drinks a bit of dancing , great crack.

Next day we only managed 2 hours in Bellurgen. Aidan showed us the 12 hours course. 10km of singletrack, deadly. A fun weekend away, looking forward to next year!

Monday, August 9, 2010

NI XC # 5, Castlewellan, Co. Down - 1st August 2010

Despite post nationals total body shutdown, I made my way to this race. You just cannot turn down the opportunity to race here, defo my favourite course I have ever ridden! After recent felling, they have had to build new tracks and further improve this already incredible course.

On the way up with Robin, we both agreed that we were totally knackered and hardly able to ride the bikes, so we decided to cruise around and chat......grand stuff, little racing so! The course is incredible, approx 22 mins of singletrack, with a couple of mins of fast flat fireroad, a triumph of XC trail building. Rain the previous couple of days had made the going real slippy, and my fasttrack tyres would not be up to the job at all, but off we went.

The pace was real gingerly at the start, a good bit of chatting and laughing on the descents, at the end of lap 1, only myself, bob and super DH'er Gareth McKee were together. Gar was incredible, training for the DH nationals, he was suffering on the up bits, but bootin it on the down bits, great stuff. Robin took care of him for the rest of the race, ensuring he wasnt dropped too much. However, I was in a bad way. 2 weeks off the bike, working hard, baby not feckin sleeping and a poxy back was taking its toll, so much so that I packed with 1 lap to go. Just goes to show how bollixed I am when I was unable to finish a race riding at 80%. Also, my 1st XC DNF in, er, 6 years, approx 50 races....not a bad statistic.

Robin cruised in 1st, with gar getting an excellent 2nd and James coming in 3rd. Time for me to sort my life out before the upcoming marathons and the Roc, then the cross season....head down time!

Congrats to XMTB, amazing course, great day out....hope to be back at Castlewellan next year!

Robin, Gar and I in the singletrack

XMTB put on a great show

Ladies nationals champ Cait rides the slidery ST

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Irish National XC Champs – 18th July 2010

Well, I went for a top 3, hovered around there for a while, legs went and I got 4th……bit of a disaster really, I gave it a go, I just wasn’t good enough!

The EPIC team put on a great show at Djouce woods. On the Saturday, I did a coaching session with 15 riders. It was a great experience and something I hope to do more of. Some of the riders were a little intimidated by some of steeper the descents and climbs, but a few minutes on each was enough to get most of them through it comfortably.

The venue is stunning, incredible views and mature forests with some great trails. The course, however, was a mixed bag. The descents were the straight down type, hold on a blow through all your elevation in a few seconds. This really does lend itself to a climbers course, I’d say only 15% of time was actually descending, on a normal course, it would be about 30%. Billed as a DHers course, but it was the opposite IMO ....howandever, it was still enjoyable, and definitely worthy of a champs course, just a bit of a shame.

We lined up on the field, I was on the 2nd row due to not have world ranking points, but I knew my starts are good so I wasn’t too worried. BANG, around the field, and 2nd in the first ST on Evans wheel. With robin behind. Around Evan, and Robin overtook me just before XTC…..already we were about 8secs ahead of everyone…SORT YOUR STARTS OUT LADS FFS.

About 1/3 way through the 1st lap I backed off Robins wheel and settled in. Ryan caught and passed me on sneaky line that I had missed a little later, and I finished the first lap about 10 sec off, no worries….Peter was about 30 sec back and riding ok. Robin was gone!

Ryan had a shunt on lap 2 and burped his tyre, and he had to stop a couple of times to give his tyre blast, so I was able to pass him and he only caught me at the end of the 3rd…..this is where it started to go wrong, the legs went, disaster. I had to switch into get home mode, Peter passed, and I keep moving slowly until the end…..pity, I would have liked a medal! Robin cruised to victory, # 16 for him. Too easy really, riding real well even though he has ‘retired’. Ryan came in a well deserved 2nd, a bit battered but a good result. Peter 3rd, mega congrats, not bad for a 47 year old!!!! Like I said earlier, good/bad day whatever, I just wasn’t good enough, but I gave it a go. Richi came in 5th, with Philip travelling from Belgium to finish a fine 6th. As always, the Focus was perfect, didnt miss a beat!

I did get on the podium though, 5 of us, 5 bottles of champagne, we all got soaked. Great day out, and well done to Richi, Luke and all the EPIC guys for a awesome show.