Now theres some things to work on this weekend! Lets get training lads!!!

results to dh

btw last Sat was a good spin! and good distance! that blast throught Masseys at the end is a RUSH!!!!

Saturday spins went really well, although we lost a couple on Saturday - can everyone please take organiser’s phone numbers, and as many members’ numbers also. I obviously didn’t have everyone in my phone - apologies.

Sunday 9am only saw 5 people turning up but thanks to them for showing - it was really enjoyable. Well done to Judith - absolutely flying. Spinning classes obviously working extremely well! Well done to other Nigel (McConnell?) and Inga on their first big spins with us. I found out that not bringing enough food makes a huge difference. I ran out of steam on the Road back to Tibradden. Mini Creme eggs worked a treat though!

Morgan’s 10am Spin had 5 (or 6) people also, so all in all there was a good turnout for such a cold day!

Nigel

Any suggestions for next week would be appreciated. Shane has already suggested making a visit to Cloon so we can all have a go at the DH course. I think Saturday has the most votes for it so far. Anything else?

yeah today was really great, it really opened-up another side of MTB altogether for me and Steve too I think

It’s weird - it’s like if you were doing that course as part of an XC spin you’d be picking lines and fussing over details and thinking twice about taking that steep drop to the fireroad etc..etc.. but come race time, there’s just no time to think, take a big breath on the start gate and just get stuck-in and hang on!

The crowd at DH events seem very enthusiastic - special thanks to the MAD contingent of Marky “I’m-gettin-a-mini-dude” Mark, Paddy Judith & Inga of the chilly toes and fingers, awesome!-Morgan (hi-five!), 6-months-biking-and-i’m-a-savage-already Oisin, Nigel Darkplace fanatic, definite-DH-material-Robb who all bravely XC’ed their way over to Cloon and hung around in the cold and cheered us on!! (oh I hope I didn’t forget someone!)
Conor was also there and Tom too, and fair play Shane for helping the epic lads out and appreciate your shouts of encouragement!

It was great to hear people shouting for you but also scary as you didn’t want to crash in front of them!

Up on that start gate is really nerve-wracking - you clip-in, balance yurself, then hear the counter beep and down you gotta go coz there’s loads of lads behind you raring to let rip!

I thought I could do DH until today - I was mistaken - today was the REAL THING.

Very fast, technical, scary, rooty and slippy but full of fun. Definitely something I’d like to do again, as would Steve, I think.
We’d rope Tom into having a go to…he was salivating while eyeing-up those full-suss bikes like they were 18, blonde and sporting lacy mini-skirts…Tom, you’re a legend!
Morgan Paddy & Judith may take a little more persuasion but we’d try convince them to give the ole DH a go…

seeing some of the top guys doing what they can do was just inspirational, myself and Tom had mouths agape seeing some of the guys hammering thru the berms and over those jumps.

right, I’ve beers to finish, see ye on the trails soon ye MAD folk!
stay fast!
Mr Secretary

The course was fantastic, quite technical and rough at the top with a couple of challenging jumps and then a very fast second half of the course. Unofortunately, it was only myself and Fergal flying the MAD flag, maybe we can try and get a bigger possie out for the next one.

Was not very happy with my first run (clipped out in very mudy tech section and couldnt get clipped back in so crashed) but had a much better clean second run. Wont be holding out for prizes yet though

Thanks to everybody who managed to get down to give a bit of support, it was really cool…. Will leave it to Fergal to write a better report.

Steve nearly roared the mountain down in rage as he broke his hangar for the 2nd time on the new machine - good to hear he is sorted for tomorrow though.

Myself and Robb thought we were deadlt lads from a ROAM video until we floored ourselves down that rocky descent on the way to Tibradden - ooh that’s still sore!

In other exciting MTB news, I attended a small gathering of bikers for an RTE interview up 3 rock this morning.

It was arranged by Richie from EPIC who was highlighting the rampant destruction (clearfelling) of our beloved forests,
and thus the end of a lot of our favourite trails.
He made a call to the government to buy-back the land from Coillte for recreational users - ie; bikers, hikers, trekkers etc….
Hopefully it will make our beloved politicians sit-up and take notice of the carnage that is being wreaked upon our forests and mountains - these are valuable recreational facilities they need to be preserved, not just a source of cheap lumber.

The news report should be going out next Mon or Tues on RTE - 6 o clock news - tune in and you may see:

a huge gap jump from Dan Wolfe (here’s my recording: gap jump)

Richie not using foul language during an interview (huh?)

a close-up of the MAD MTB logo (my gilet) - yeah! Ireland’s Premier MTB Club baby!!

a gang of bikers (including me!) lashing around some familiar trails up 3 rock

’til the next time, keep it fast my beauties!
Mr Secretary

Also, my HTML editing skills are very limited. The image/video thing is not my work!

See ye all over the weekend!