Ballyhoura Trails, Co. Limrick – Sat - Sun 26-27th July 2008

Gar and I drove down on sat to the Ballyhoura trail centre. 2.5 hours in the car and we were ready to ride! We set out on the full red loop, 52km, 4 – 6 hours the sign said. After 2:50 we were back in the carpark, so a bite to eat and a lap of the brown loop saw us into the afternoon.
Next day, we just did the white & brown loop, as the blue and red were just too tame, through scrub land and lots of crap frieroad.
A good weekend, could do it in a day easily!

Watch the drop!

Boardwalks everywhere!

Nice

Handy bikewash

The trailcentre was well setup

Irish National Championships, Kilruddery, Co. Wicklow – Sun 20th July 2008

Back to Kilruddery, the home of the Irish XC nationals. I first won the Irish nationals here all the way back in 1993, on my 21st birthday, so I have fond memories of the place. It’s a great venue, stunning scenary, wonderfull wooded singletrack, and great fields to race in.
Robin and TW designed a great race course. Only 4 small 3 min climbs the rest was rolley face singletrack. There was sooooo much going on, non stop corner, humps, yumps, bomb holes and berms….great stuff.
7 laps for the elite and I was nervous. My last 6 weeks was terrible, a bad crahs, a shoulder and neck injury, Hazo hospitalised and the crapola weather didn’t help either. 2 kgs heavier, and I wasn’t even goona race!
A 2nd row gridding based on my world ranking, and bang we were off, I had to hold back as I didn’t want to get in the way of the real battle (Robin, Niall and Conor). I followed these trio and Lewis for the 1st half a lap, and then settled into the race. I had good legs for the first 3 laps, and I was holding 4th with Aidan @ 40secs, and Ryan @ ~ 1:30. I then started to stuggle, and Aidan caught me on lap 4. He was riding like it was lap 1, so I was unable to hold his pace for long. The last lap was real hard, cramping all over, and Ryan coming up fast from behind. I though I had 5th, but Ryan came storming up and passed me on the last climb, I was bullin’. Not to worry, a good ride and an ok result, my last Elite nationals.
Congrats to Robin, his 15th straight tile, with Conor in 2nd and Niall a very close 3rd. Big it up for Aidan, mega ride, super slick on the singletrack, I was no competition for him today.

Great weather and great singletrack

Robin and Conor do battle

Evan failed to finish

The start was FAST

Ryan passed me on the last climb.

NPS # 4, Djouce, Co. Wicklow – Sun 15th June 2008

I was REALLY looking forward to this race. The course was incredible, a twist on TWs K Capital course. Very dry too, this should have suited me down to the ground! After a good start, things started to go downhill! I really suffered throughout the race, I couldn’t climb at all. Robin was there out in front, and Peter stuck to his wheel while I drifted back. Then James passed, then Aidan……..this was not good. I stuck at it though, only to get points for the league and to maintain my 40 race DNF record.
I came in 5th, a good bit back. My worst race in a long time. I had a lot of injuries and other things going on recently, so this all contributed, so it was not that surprising.
5th was still good enough to keep the league, but I will be missing the next round in Tymon, so its all down to the final round!!!

Ohhh, the pain!

Craigs first race in K Cap colours yielded and excellent 2nd in the masters