After racing in the British National Series race in Plymouth and finishing top 10 in a field of quality Internationals on the Saturday we had a 3 hour drive to Bristol after the race, a 2 hour delay with the plane, missed the bus from Dublin airport and finally getting home at 1am absolutely exhausted - great race preparation for the Irish marathon championships the next day. I had to be up at 6.30 on Sunday morning for a 3 hour drive down to Ballyhoura, unsure if I'd be able for racing but decided that if my legs felt in anyway functioning I’d at least try and get around the course.
Warming up I felt tired but able to ride, and after the disaster the day before I suddenly found a sense of purpose, I was going to win this thing if it killed me, I had to salvage something from the weekend. I was testing some compression wear before the race from new WXC team supporter Compressport and can highly recommend them, it really helped speeding up recovery.
We set off up a long fire road climb and as loads of over enthusiastic guys went shooting past I rode on Ciara McManus’s wheel, letting her set a steady pace. I moved in front but was careful not to get carried away, I decided riding conservatively was the best option since I wasn’t sure how long my legs would last after yesterday.
I started to pull away from Ciara and settled into a steady rhythm, concentrating on my own race. The course was a nice mixture of fire road climbs, manmade trail centre single track, and rocky or boggy moorland tracks. I’m not normally a fan of trail centres but the first descent was great, super fast berms and jumps that really got the adrenaline flowing without using much energy – perfect for tired legs!
Some of the climbing was tough, technical rocky sections that required a lot of effort and seemed to go on for a long time. After about an hour of riding with the guys, Ciara suddenly appeared on my wheel out of nowhere on a climb. That scared me; I had to force myself to keep it steady rather than panicking and trying to shoot off. At the top I got ahead of a couple of guys so that I had a bit of a buffer, and then went hard on the descent to try and get away. I think I needed a kick up the bum and it meant I had to stay focused for the rest of the race. My one bit of good race preparation was to write on my handlebars where the big climbs and feed zones were on the course – why I haven’t done it before I don’t know, but it was incredibly useful for pacing and pushing myself as we went along.
Some of the open mountain trails were really boggy, with several gigantic puddles. Organisers MBCC did a great job of marking them with signs to warn you how deep it might be. At one point a sign said ‘deep but doable’ – ok I thought, I’ll ride it, my feet were already soaked. I didn’t expect the water to go up past the top of my forks though; I might have been better swimming!
By the last long climb I was starting to hurt a bit but my handlebar note told me there was a big long descent to the finish, so that made it much easier. I was making up lots of places against the guys too as people started to struggle and blow up. The last descent was worth it all, a fast swoopy single track that seemed to go on forever. I was pelting along, riding on my limits with the thought of a new jersey giving me a new found fire in my legs. I caught a couple of guys in front but the narrow trail meant it was impossible to pass. I got a bit frustrated but in the end gave up trying to pass and enjoyed the ride down with four of us riding on each other’s wheel. As the finish came in sight I couldn’t believe it when we were directed into a little finishing loop that included a slight climb, it was a killer and the final nail in the coffin for several people who ended up off the bikes with cramp despite being less than a minute from the end.
I was delighted to cross the line winning my 2nd National championship title and making me feel a bit better after the day before, and good to end the season on a more positive note.
Warming up I felt tired but able to ride, and after the disaster the day before I suddenly found a sense of purpose, I was going to win this thing if it killed me, I had to salvage something from the weekend. I was testing some compression wear before the race from new WXC team supporter Compressport and can highly recommend them, it really helped speeding up recovery.
We set off up a long fire road climb and as loads of over enthusiastic guys went shooting past I rode on Ciara McManus’s wheel, letting her set a steady pace. I moved in front but was careful not to get carried away, I decided riding conservatively was the best option since I wasn’t sure how long my legs would last after yesterday.
I started to pull away from Ciara and settled into a steady rhythm, concentrating on my own race. The course was a nice mixture of fire road climbs, manmade trail centre single track, and rocky or boggy moorland tracks. I’m not normally a fan of trail centres but the first descent was great, super fast berms and jumps that really got the adrenaline flowing without using much energy – perfect for tired legs!
Some of the climbing was tough, technical rocky sections that required a lot of effort and seemed to go on for a long time. After about an hour of riding with the guys, Ciara suddenly appeared on my wheel out of nowhere on a climb. That scared me; I had to force myself to keep it steady rather than panicking and trying to shoot off. At the top I got ahead of a couple of guys so that I had a bit of a buffer, and then went hard on the descent to try and get away. I think I needed a kick up the bum and it meant I had to stay focused for the rest of the race. My one bit of good race preparation was to write on my handlebars where the big climbs and feed zones were on the course – why I haven’t done it before I don’t know, but it was incredibly useful for pacing and pushing myself as we went along.
Some of the open mountain trails were really boggy, with several gigantic puddles. Organisers MBCC did a great job of marking them with signs to warn you how deep it might be. At one point a sign said ‘deep but doable’ – ok I thought, I’ll ride it, my feet were already soaked. I didn’t expect the water to go up past the top of my forks though; I might have been better swimming!
By the last long climb I was starting to hurt a bit but my handlebar note told me there was a big long descent to the finish, so that made it much easier. I was making up lots of places against the guys too as people started to struggle and blow up. The last descent was worth it all, a fast swoopy single track that seemed to go on forever. I was pelting along, riding on my limits with the thought of a new jersey giving me a new found fire in my legs. I caught a couple of guys in front but the narrow trail meant it was impossible to pass. I got a bit frustrated but in the end gave up trying to pass and enjoyed the ride down with four of us riding on each other’s wheel. As the finish came in sight I couldn’t believe it when we were directed into a little finishing loop that included a slight climb, it was a killer and the final nail in the coffin for several people who ended up off the bikes with cramp despite being less than a minute from the end.
I was delighted to cross the line winning my 2nd National championship title and making me feel a bit better after the day before, and good to end the season on a more positive note.
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