International news

[Sean]

Ryan and Mel were off racing in Britain again this weekend, at another NPS XC & marathon double-header.


Ryan placed 19th in the XC race on Saturday after a first lap crash left him with a warped rotor and rubbing brake, and followed up with a 4th place in the 100km marathon on Sunday.

Mel placed 5th on Saturday after a slip-up at the start (sshh!) but recovered on Sunday to take 2nd in the 100km ladies marathon - in 6.5hours!


Irish champ Robin Seymour placed 3rd in Saturday's XC race while Rachel Wisdom also took 3rd in Sports.


Peter Buggle of Team WORC won the Vets 50km marathon after taking 2nd in the XC race.


Results and pics from Saturday here (http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/web/site/BC/mtb/EventReports2008/20080510_nps_xc_round2_report.asp) and Sunday here (http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/web/site/BC/mtb/EventReports2008/20080511_whyte_enduro_round2.asp)


Well done to all.

Sean

[ryan]

More details about the weekend later but when I got up this morning I felt like I was hit by a train.


I suffered a lot on Saturdays race (2:30) and then had the 100k race (5:30) just in case I didn't suffer enough on Saturday - man it was hot! I even got some cyclist tan at the weekend :)

[NigelS]

awesome results folks.


fantastic!

[Liam]

Well done lads and lassies.

[ryan]

I wrote a little about it on my blog: http://ryansherlock.blogspot.com/2008/05/2008-british-xcmarathon-nps-drumlanrig.html


Mel will have something up soon.


I still feel like I was hit by a train!

[Fergal]

that's because you were moving faster than a train - a bullet train at that Ryan!!

Well done and great results for both of ye!

Yikes! - I'm just after reading that ye brought the Silver Bullet with ye - oh good lord!!!!!

[PeterPolish]

Well done!

Just one question - are all marathons in UK done as 8 (or whatever number) of laps?! It's crazy, I'd not like to do it this way... in Poland we usually have only one or 2 laps on a longer "lap"...


Great effort - 2 races within 2 days - a killer!

[mel]

Thanks, that was a hard race on Sunday. 6.5hours racing on a hardtail on this course - I'm amazed I can move again today....

[ryan]

Yeah, a lot of the marathon races are lap based. They use a chunk of the XC course from Saturday each time too. Me, I would rather less laps but there are a few advantages to many laps...

- feed/tech zones are a lot easier, you go through the same area multiple times so a lot of headache is eased

and here is the major one

- it is MUCH easier to mark out - the courses in the UK were really well marked and you would have to be mad to get off the trail. Personally, for a Championship event I would rather 10, 10km laps rather then 1 lap over open mountain without proper marking/marshaling - even if the trails on the open mountain course were better.


The Margem marathon in the UK was a great one, 4 laps of a 25km course.

[Fergal]

Fast fast fast!!!

http://lh5.ggpht.com/fergal.kilkenny/SCmQDY6-LMI/AAAAAAAAB5s/rRGiLUJh6Ck/s400/Ryan%20Sherlock.JPG (http://picasaweb.google.com/fergal.kilkenny/InternationalMTBRacePics/photo#5199845632679750850)


http://lh3.ggpht.com/fergal.kilkenny/SCmQD46-LNI/AAAAAAAAB50/kcZvoj-pNL8/s400/Bluebell%20Mel.JPG (http://picasaweb.google.com/fergal.kilkenny/InternationalMTBRacePics/photo#5199845641269685458)