MarkG

The Easter weekend of April 7/8th saw the very first Gravity Enduro held in Ireland, organised by the Biking.ie crew it was a massive success with a great relaxed atmosphere and superb timed trail descents. Some big names turned up including Joe Barnes, Megavalanche winner Jerome Clementz and our own xc champ Robin Seymour amongst others . A great crew of Mad riders signed up and practice saturday and race day on sunday was brilliant Craic, the riding to each stage start (5 stages) having a buzz then blasting down deadly Descents is a winning format for sure.

Pro cat podium was 1st Joe Barnes 2nd Jerome Clementz 3rd Nicolas Lau

16-29 cat   Mad rider Steven Scrivener(ducc) finished 11th overall with consistent riding, Rob Roest Whittle (Mad) was 24th, Dave Senior (Mad) fin in 30th position, Mad’s Martin Butterly finished 47th overall after two punctures ruined a couple of stages, Martin was a good 3rd on stage 3.

30-34 cat    Gene Ryan (Mad) finished a solid 9th place overall, Peter Loscher finished 15th, Tom Heavey (Ducc)24th and Sean Mackessy(Mad) 28th, Derek Hayes finished 59th after problems but had a good stage 2 finishing in 3rd place.

35-39 cat   Graham Diamond (Mad) finished 25th overall with Mark McGauley (Mad/OC tuning) in 26th, 1st on stage 1, 2nd stage 2 and joint 1st on stage 4, but a puncture on Toro on stage 3 scuppered overall hopes, Mad’s Niall Horgan was 30th overall.

A really great weekend on the mountainbikes and with round 2 in Ticknock/3rock  GET IN THERE!!

Thanks for pics by Aine Conneff, Donna Hayes and Steve Donnellan

A brilliant day’s racing!  thanks to the Racing 795 club for an amazing race and track which was in great condition thanks to some dry weather and a lovely sunny day. This course is a real favourite and would make a great NPS race even without a start field, the lads had chip timing and the results were up before we even left Wexford, impressive!

An amazing sprint finish in S1 saw Martin Allen{Riverside) pip Peter Buggle(rocky m) by .700 of an second!! 3rd was Richie Felle while Mark McGauley(MAD) was 6th with Ciaran Byrne having bad luck and was a dnf. Savage competitive racing as usual in S1

S2 was won by Paddy Mackey (worc) 2nd Stu Galloway and 3rd Paul Coyne both from Worc, Gene Ryan (MAD) was 6th after a very close battle for 4th spot, only 4 seconds between them, Conor Conneff finished a good ride in 19th position. Fergal Kilkenny and Seven Scrivener both had to retire with the dreaded dnf. Its competitive racing in S2 again this season.

S3 was won by Brian Hutchinson (Epic) and local Racing 795 boys Ross moorhead an Lynn Hayden 2nd/3rd. Niall Horgan (MAD) was 14th with Rob Roest Whittle(MAD) a close 15th, Derek Hayes was 23rd just ahead of Martin Butterly in 24th, Peter Loscher fin in 31st, Ian Heald was a dnf after missing start of S4 after forgetting about the clocks goin forward!! Fair play for giving s3 a shot. roll on rd 3 in Bellurgan now for the S3 bragging rights!

S4 was won by Sean Walsh, MAD rider Mark McCourt finished 6th place.

U16 winner was Conor Lavelle (MAD) in a time that would easily have won S4, 2nd Conor Kavanagh and Cian Mulligan in 3rd

Ladies S2 won by Caroline Murphy(Epic/expert cycles) and Agata tamulewicz (MAD) 2nd, Paula Keohan a dnf

Brilliant day! roll on the Blitz/Gravity Enduro/NPS and to more dry trails

Thanks for photos by Richie Byrne and Rebecca Brannigan

GET IN THERE!

The Mountain bike races have arrived:},there is plenty of racing coming up such as Biking Blitz round 2 in Ballyhoura on march 4th, its a great venue for racing and it will also hold the xc marathon champs again this year on 26th august. March 18th will be the first race at brand new venue in Annamoe co Wicklow, G-ride trail teaser, its also round 2 of the Leinster league, Round3 Biking Blitz Derroura is also on sunday the 18th.  a little confusingly round 1of the Leinster league will be held a week later March 25th in Bunclody Wexford,in a much liked race held by the Racing 795 lads.

MAD have had a good start at the Blitz in Ballinatoe on Feb 19th, with podiums for Brian oDriscoll[ Baggy shorts], Steve Scrivener [Student champ] Claire Breslin [pro women] and some top ten’s in Super pro men from Mark McGauley and Oisin Boydell. It sets up the season nicely so get racing!

Xc racers enjoyed a really great weekend thanks to IMBRC, they worked tirelessly on the track  including laying lots of hardcore to battle the huge amounts of rain that fell in the week preceding, it worked!  The popular team relay on saturday was raced on a slippy messy but still great course, Mad riders Fergal Kilkenny and Mark McGauley with IMBRC man Stephen Pollack were first home out of the 18 teams, mad’s Oisin Boydell,Phil McDonagh with John Landai Epic finished 3rd. Mad riders were also showing off the new kit which graced a fair few podiums

The main event was on sunday and the weather turned out great, the track dried out significantly from saturday which meant the great features like the Double Dipper rode brilliantly.  S1 was won in fine style by Gareth McKee [Banbridge] with vets champ Aiden McDonald [Cuchulainn] 2nd and Richie Felle [thinkbike] 3rd.  Mad’s Richie Close [Cycle inn/ktm] was 4th just pipping Mark McGauley in 5th, Ciaran Byrne was 9th [ DU cycling club] oisin Boydell was 11th [cycle inn/ktm] , it was a cracking race and another strong S1 field of 22 riders. the race was also the final round of the Leinster league, overall win goes to Aiden McDonald with 59 pts, Richie Felle 51 and Mark McGauley also on 51 pts

S2 was won by host club man Jim Haide [IMBRC] with Mad’s Gene Ryan getting his best result so far in 2nd, Fergal Kilkenny was 3rd and this clinches the overall Leinster league with 62 pts with Gene Ryan 2nd 53pts and Jim Haide 3rd 38pts. 

S3 was won by Gary Shields [Cuchulainn] with Mad racers finishing 24th Jon Willetts, Ronan Mooney 27th, Chris Mollaghan 31st, Rob Roostwhittle 42nd and Nick Lanotte 46th.

S4 won by Ryan Walsh [Carn wheelers] and Madmtb lads Martin Butterly 7th, Derek Hayes 10th, peter Loscher 11th, Alan Walsh 30th.

S2 women won by Gill Smith with Mad racer Agata Tamulewicz 4th

S3 women was won by Caroline Murphy [Epic] with Mad’s Claire Breslin 2nd ans Aine McKenna [IMBRC] 3rd.

Scott Wallace finished 10th in his first race at u16 and Conor Lavelle continued his dominance with a win in u14

Much thanks to IMBRC for a fine weekend