Mountainbiking Association of Dublin

This past weekend saw fantastic success for club members Ryan Sherlock and Melanie Späth in Round 1 of the British NPS XC and Marathon races in Thetford, England. Melanie fended off almost everything Britain had to throw at her with superb 2nd places in quality fields on both days, just losing out to multiple British champs Jenny Copnall on Saturday and Sally Bigham on Sunday by a margin of less than 1 minute over 4 hours and 20 mins of racing in the 100km event. Ryan suffered a nasty crash in the XC race on Saturday while running in about 15th place after starting from the rear of the pack and retired early to prepare for Sunday’s 100km Marathon, where he took a fine 3rd place in 3:55:55 while riding under the Torq team banner.

Both riders document their escapades on blogs, which can be found here and here. Pictures of the XC race and Marathon are online here and here.

Congratulations to both riders from all in MAD and we look forward to seeing more success in the future!

Sean

Have you experienced a sharp pain in your stomach a couple of hours into a ride? That’s known among serious bikers as “hunger”. The best remedy for this condition is to eat some food. Flapjacks are a popular form of food and ideal for biking because they’re high energy and compact. Luckily for us, Sean is adept at making them and is about to share his secret recipe…

425g porridge oats
250g margarine
250g caster sugar
175g syrup (mix of golden syrup and maple syrup, about half and half works best, the more golden the harder the flapjack)
2 small oranges
bar of cooking chocolate

-Prepare a baking tray; if you have one, use one of those black cooking sheets and grease well.
-Grate the rind of the 2 oranges into a large pot.
-Add margarine, syrup and sugar to the pot and heat until all melted and liquefied
-Turn off the heat and start adding in the oats, mixing until all oats are completely covered by the mixture.
-Put on baking tray (about 3/4 inch depth) and place in oven, about 170′C until golden brown, around 20 mins but it does vary so keep an eye on it.
-Leave to cool and add a topping, chocolate is best, melted marmalade also works, be adventurous and try different ones.
-It’s best to cut them before they cool fully when they are softer and less crumbly.
-You can add more things like raisins, nuts etc. to the mix.

We’re considering adding a home-baking round to the 2006 MAD Club Champs so get preparing…