Mountainbiking Association of Dublin

In a cruel twist of fate, soon after upgrading his bike to one from this century, MAD wunderkind Christian (with his accomplice and über-home-baker, Sonia) has to return to Germany to take up a new job. We’ll be sorry to see him go, not to mention his endless supply of home-made cakes. He’s having a final, farewell ride this Saturday, meeting at the Yellow House at 10am, so be sure to come along and wish him well.

On Sunday, round four of the 2007 NPS takes place in Magheramorne Quarry, near Larne Co. Antrim. This is a totally new race venue, part of the Magheramorne Works redevelopment (read about it on www.magworks.info). The venue and organisation sound promising - “Riders should really enjoy the set up, the course includes a bridge crossing, a tunnel, a lake splash and plenty of single track. Facilities at the venue are great, we will be using the Blue Circle Sailing Club as the race HQ, and this includes access to changing rooms and showers.” This should be well worth the journey. Read more below.

Check out the MAD calendar for details of other spins this weekend.

The NPS season kicked off with a great race up north on sunday, in Glenarm Forest Park. MAD had a sizable contingent, with 8 of us taking to the start line (plus Cait from UCD who was honorary MAD for the day), on a course that included some tight twisty singletrack, some fast straight singletrack, some sketchy gripless sections and a killer steep fireroad climb.

Cait had a great race taking 2nd in the Elite ladies with Mel taking a well deserved 3rd place in her first race of the season, for MADs only official podium. Unfortunately for Judith the mechanical chain gremlins struck causing her to retire.

In the U16s class, Shane took 4th wiht Ciaran just behind in 5th place.

The sports race was great fun, despite chasing hard i just could not catch Daniel who took 7th place for MAD, with myself in 8th, Arek in 10th and Mr Diamond taking a great 13th in his first ever race. Hopefully we’ll get some good photos courtesy of Marta who was busily snapping away whenever i walked up any of the hills (dammit).

Round 2 takes place in Ballinastoe next Sunday which is so close to us that there’s no excuse for not getting out and giving it a try. As Tom would say .. Bring on the Power!

Yeah baby! XC racing to the MAX!!

Just to get you in the mood…turn the volume UP!

…but you know there’s a better quality one on the Irish XC MTB website - it’s the first News item halfway down the page.

Click on the image below to get there.

www.manvbike.com
Courtesy of our friend Peter X O’Farrell.

Sean

The K Capital Cup begins this Sunday with round one taking place in the grounds of Kilruddery Estate, Co. Wicklow. We hope to have a large group from MAD in attendance whether you’re racing or spectating. Bring your families and pets too! Sign on is at 10am with the races beginning at 12 noon (read more).

The course is open for practice from 1pm to 4pm on Saturday. If you’re racing you should definitely head down to preview it. If you’re a bit unsure about taking part you should go for the practice and then decide. This is your only opportunity to ride in Kilruddery - it’s closed to mountainbikers for the rest of the year.

We’re also having a race/fitness training spin on Thursday evening (Ticknock, 7pm). This will be similar to last weeks spin - completing as many short laps as possible in a specified time.

www.kcapitalcup.com

The 2007 race season is finally upon us with the K-Capital Cup starting next week (March 11th) in Kilruddery. If, like most of us, you haven’t been intensively training since November there are a couple of last-minute opportunities to get up to speed. EPIC will be running another night race in Leadmines this Thursday (handicapped, so everyone has an equal chance of winning). Then on Sunday Round 4 of the Connacht XC League takes place in Clarenbridge Co. Galway. I’d encourage everyone to try a race or two this year - it’s an opportunity to ride in different locations, it’ll make you fitter and of course it’s a lot of fun.

The Inter-Club Night Race League continues this week at the EPIC club course in Leadmines. The race is run on a handicap system so anyone can come along and have fun.

Starting at 7:30 at Leadmines tower/EPIC club course, but we will meet/depart from Palmers Golden Ball pub at 7:00pm sharp to get up there in time to intimidate the competition with ‘eye-of-the-tiger’ stares and’don’t-diss-me-mutha’ tough-looking folded arm poses.

Any problems with developing these looks please contact Morgan O’Connell’s School-of-Advanced-Psyche-Outs on 1-800-I-pity-the-fool

Hope to see ye there!

Fergal 087-792-7730

Starting at 7:30 at Leadmines tower/EPIC club course.
4 fun laps of skill and exertion

Departing from Palmers Golden Ball pub at 7:00pm sharp.

Hope to see ye there!

Fergal 087-792-7730

Thanks to careful planning and amazing foresight the MAD club champs took place just before the storms of last weekend. We had 20 racers and a few spectators too, not to mention a huge amount of snacks. There were some great costumes on show, from the traditional to the scary to the disturbing. Everyone was in good form as we undertook some challenges in the Happy Valley - seeing who’d ride down and if it was possible to ride back up. Then it was on to the race course where we previewed the new track. The new section is a blast to ride - very fast and flowing.

The mass start from the car park quickly spread out on the first climb as the serious racers sped off while others took a more leisurely, seasonal approach. The fireroad climb was hard work against the wind but the descent easily made up for it (we all went back for another go after the race). There were some spectacular crashes (Martin) and costume malfunctions on the way down. Riders arriving back after their first lap were presented with mince pies and not allowed to continue until they were finished. This led to some changes in position as fast riders were let down by their inferior eating skills. Shane was allowed to substitute half a packet of Jaffa Cakes due to a mince allergy.

Determining the winner was a complex affair taking race results, fancy dress, riding experience and more into account. In the end the award for Club Champion 2006 went to Brown Santa himself, Nigel Shekelton.

Overall Results

1. Nigel Shekelton
2. Oisin Boydell
3. Fergal J Kilkenny
4. Hamish Keam
5. Shane Geoghegan
6. Morgan O’Connell
7. Sean Downey
8. Cormac Ahern
9. Steve Scrivener
10. Ciaran Corson
11. Mark Cromie
12. Martin Lynch
13. Carsten Schicht
14. Conor Conneff
15. Brendan McGee
16. Stephen Haines
17. Barry McNamara
18. Brian Linton
19. Judith Maguire
20. Barry O’Brien

Well done to everyone who came along to take part. This was a real highlight of the year and we’re looking forward to even better things in 2007.

More cyclocross news - will the madness never cease? Ireland’s second best mountainbiking club - the IMBRC - are running a CX race on November 18th in Tymon Park. This is one of the most accessible race venues around - just past the M50 at Tallaght. The skinny-wheeled freakshow is open to MTBs as well and the race only lasts about an hour so there’s no excuse not to have a go. I might even try it myself to see what it’s really about. Click below for more details.