Mountainbiking Association of Dublin

The 2008 race season is upon us already. Round 1 of the K-Capital cup takes place in Kilruddery estate this Sunday. Read Andy Pott’s Preview for the low-down on what to expect. Kilruddery is one of the best XC courses in the country, very varied and challenging and there’s a huge amount of anticipation about this first race.

We’ll have a whole new generation of MAD riders trying out racing for the first time in the Sports category. Several will also be making the leap from Sports into the Expert and Masters categories. Ryan will still be representing us in Elites and will face some fierce competition. The forum is busy with talk of race preparation and gauntlets being thrown.

The MAD committee will be present on both days to distribute licences, collect club dues and solve your personal problems. Find them in the MAD Tent Village.

www.kcapitalcup.com

All, A bit of race training (no long spin).

• Kindlestown
• Time: 10am Sunday
• Laps: 2/3 laps
• Attire: Lycra only no baggys

• Banned: Camelbaks and peaks on mtb helmets
• Pace: Race? lets give it a go
• Bike: HT heaven or light sus

Following a bit of exertion we can then head over to the GOTDs and do a bit of a loop or two there on star wars and the tunnel!

Again people baggies and peaked helmets will be not allowed on the spin !

The emphasis will be on how many of us feel up to sports class racing this year or higher!
I’m on for giving sports a bash this year (but the look at the mad sports racers make me fear being lapped)
Martin

Meeting Place: Crone Carpark

Time: 9.30

Day: Sunday 2nd

Route: Climb to the top of Crone, Ride the sleepers (wind permitting), Maulin, Powerscourt, Djouce and Balinatoe all in there somewhere.

Pace: Savage 4-5 hours

Steve: 0861653925

This is a great offer - I’ve often had over 4grands worth of bikes on the back of my car and always hope no uninsured eejit runs into the back of me, or hope no one steals my bike from a race venue etc.. as has happened before - this offer will set my mind at ease!

Fergal

Click on the image below to view the offer.

The Mountain Biking Ireland AGM will take place at Kilfinane, Co Limerick on Saturday March 1st. The itinerary for the weekend is as follows:

10am - meet main forest car park for a spin around the new trails (3 hours)
1.30pm - lunch/showers
3pm - AGM Ballyhoura forest lodges, Ballyorgan
5pm - Dinner/Social evening

On Sunday there are two events nearby, a duathlon in Limerick city or an XC race in Tracton wood, or another spin around the trails.There is accommodation available in the Ballyhoura forest lodges at €55 - €65 per person for two nights accommodation. Everyone is welcome.
There are plenty of B&B’s also available locally.

The agenda for the AGM is as follows :

MBI AGM Agenda

1. Chairman’s report
2. Update for regions - regional reps
3. Proposed structure for MBI
4. Presentation on organisations who can impact trail development
5. Ratification of officers
6. AOB

Contact Elizabeth.mccluskey@dit.ie with any questions.

The new MAD website went live today. It doesn’t look very different, but the new site will make it much easier for us to keep our information up to date and add new articles. There’s also a new discussion forum where you can express your deepest thoughts. Let us know how you get on with the new setup.

It was a combination of cold, sunny, windy, rainy, icy, crunchy-mucky, misty, snowy and downright miserable weather on Saturday and Sunday (though Saturday was pretty nice in fairness) but that was no reason not to be out biking!

Drop a line in the blog and let us know how you got on…

There was a fair bit of it, especially Saturday with the spin across to Ballinastoe,
then there was the Awesome Club Chairman racing over in the west….
Drop a line in the blog and let us know how you got on…

From CoillteOutdoors.ie

Sections of the Ballinastoe Mountain Bike Trails will be closed from Monday 21st January 2008 for a period of about three weeks. This is to facilitate the closing works which need to be carried out to ensure that the trails are finished to the highest quality standards. We would ask all trail users to respect the section closure and re-routing signs. Your cooperation with these temporary section closures will ultimately result in a better mountain biking experience.

Howdy MAD ladies!
Beth McCluskey and Richie Byrne from EPIC are looking to run some Women-Specific mountainbiking training days with Glyn O’Brien.
Glyn is a very skilled and succesful MTB’er who runs training courses at all levels for various MTB disciplines - this will be for intermediate XC/cross-country skills training.

The proposed dates are either 9th February or 8th of March, both are Saturdays.

This kind of training is very beneficial both for casual biking and also for racing as your new found skills and awareness will help you overcome technical/difficult terrain and thus increase your sense of achievement and enjoyment of mountainbiking.

For further detail please contact Richie Byrne at richie.byrne@gmail.com or ring him on 0876376065.