MAD Dixie Dash 2007 Round 2

It was the usual die-hard MAD group racing for the first one,
thanks to Conor, Judith and Rachel for the marshalling and times,in total not too many of us, well outnumbered by EPIC!!

I expect to see a lot more out at the next one, people have put a lot of work into the course, planning and marshalling etc… so you need to be showing up so these efforts aren’t in vain.

I’ll be coming after you with a big stick if you don’t make the next one!!!

for sure Conor, look forward to seeing you on the start line!!
I might put the camera on the front of the bike this time – capture the carnage!!!

Thanks to everyone that came out!
Hope the injuries heal soon – you hit it on the head there Conor! (what a brutal pun eh?)

Twice the speed, twice the craic, and ten times the flying bodies and bikes – now that’s much more like it lads!!

A better showing from MAD this time round and a good few EPIC heads out too meant it was going to be a fun chase all the way to the end.

The DH contingent was ably represented by Basil and Dave Ferguson, think that guy Jake Brennan was on a rig too but he retired early obviously overwhelmed by the amount of adrenaline rushing to his head halfway down the first descent, it can happen…

Anyway, the rest of the heads were set to take on the “I’ll gobble all your travel” descent followed by the leg sapping fireroad before they would encounter their DH bretheren again.

Some woefully pungent gas courtesy of the ever-generous Eamo lifted everyone to their feet,
a brief bout of woeful slagging ensued and after a quick peep at the map, everyone was raring to go.
As soon as Richie retrieved his mysterious flying saddle from the bog we were set.

And they’re off!!!

A fast blast across to 2 rock with Maxxis-sized lumps of bog muck being thrown-up in the wake of the leading pack, Oisin Fitz retiring early with a puncture just before 2 rock.
A lot of line-swapping and out-of-their-feckin’-boxes thinking resulted in most of the pack getting to the path very quickly.

Off right we split motoring-down the big descent, as the dh boys continued on down straight, Luke leading down the descent with Karl, Oisin and myself in hot pursuit.
(as I remember it-the actual facts may differ dramatically to my version)

A crash each from Luke and Karl didn’t keep the shaggers down for long enough, and it was Oisin Luke and Karl through the hole in the forest with me after them.
The fireroad was a killer but I manged to get up near the front but not for long as we were strategically intercepted by Dave and Basil ripping their way down the hill.
Into the first singletrack section, it was Basil, Dave, Oisin, myself and Karl, think it was between Luke & Scrivo who were just behind.

A fast wind down through the open area, over the bridge, and super-serpent-snakey-speed through the humpty singletrack.

Over the hump and hoowered-along the fast path, a bunch-up at the steep hump into the second forest section caused me to slip down the bank, with a wild-man like charge Karl was up over and motoring down through the dark forest, I clicked down a few cogs and gave chase.

At the dual track split, Karl took the right and I took the slightly faster left and nipped ahead before the exit into the clearing.

Then up the tabletop which nearly up-ended me (feckin’ steep!) and into the DH track which was much drier than last week.
Veered off left and joined the MADjestic section, the whole forest was really fast, the dh boys were bombing it, feck them I though to myslef, I thought they’d be suffering by now….

I opted for the new jump/drop to the left of the rollable jump, it’s a sweet one,
and ended up alongside the tree trunk of trauma instead of the chicken run
- slightly illegal route I think but hey, that’s illegal racing for ya and it gained me a second or two on Oisin so the ends justifying the means….

Down into the bombhole Basil and Dave drifted off right instead of keeping left and that was they’re first and second place gone, hard luck lads, ye were flying up to that point.
That just left Oisin in front who made the fatal mistake of watching the rider in front instead of his line, a twitch of the bars and he went down
I went over his front wheel I think and then sailed down the ferny trail to a dixie dumpling or two.

It was then that the real entertainment began, with bloodied lags, cramped calves, busted mechs and ragged expressions arriving down out of the ferns like it was Day of the bejaysus Dead.

Fair play to the new lad – Micheal from MAD, whose mtb experience to that point was a few mild beginners spins, four over the bars stunts left him looking like he’d been danced-on at an elephant rave but still smiling.
There were many more impacts also – feel free to share them with us lads…

Next week brings us a slightly different route but just as much craic, the bodycount will surely increase…on with the Body Count!!!

notes-
The finish times sheet has second place as number 14 – who according to my list was Jake Brennan – think this should have been Dave Ferguson…..?
Dave – can ya confirm?

Oisin Boydell – your number wasn’t on the finish sheet – there was a blank line at 17:05 (8th place) – was this you?

RESULTS:

RIDER TIME CLUB

Fergal Kilkenny 13:52 MAD
Dave Ferguson 14:02 EPIC?
Karl Thomas 14:03 EPIC
Alan Ayling 14:07 EPIC
Steve Scrivener 14:09 EPIC
Luke Smaul 15:01 EPIC
Richie Byrne 16:27 EPIC
Eamo Gassy-Arse 16:40 EPIC
Oisin Boydell 17:05 MAD
Conor Conneff 17:38 MAD
Karl 18:00 MAD
Ollie Castle 20:49 MAD
Barry O’Brien 23:04 MAD
Micheal Hallisey24:57 MAD
Oisin Fitz DNF MAD
Jake Brennan DNF ??

oops, Scrivo is down as an EPIC memeber!!!
No way to edit the post – sorry Steve!