Dromara Winter Trail Quest Series

[mickfarrell]

Myself and Rose are going to do some of these, looks like it's for teams of 3, anyone interested?

Trail Quest Details - http://www.dromaracc.co.uk/

[Gar]

Yeah I be on for doing one or 2 - will be after xmas though

[mickfarrell]

Good man Gar!
We're probably going to do the one this weekend, we'll let you know how it goes!

[RoseG]

So we took part in Round 1 of this year's Dromara Trail Quest, finished joint 3rd on the day, but 1st mixed pair.
They were surprised to see IMBRC up there, we wanted to show off the new club gear so we had to go.
Good spin around, finding the markers keeps it interesting, recommend it for a Sunday spin.

[Paul]

Well done guys.....sounds like fun..!

[RoseG]

Rd.2 on tomorrow for anyone who fancies the spin, motorway pretty much the whole way. We travelled up last night, roads are pretty good.

[Dave O Shea]

Good luck tomorrrow !

[Paul]

How did it go yesterday..?

[mickfarrell]

So, Rd.2 yesterday, organisers actually shook our hands and thanked us for coming up, loads of trails around that area made for an interesting day out.
Again no technical biking but a light bit of snow and some ice in spots made it an enjoyable day overall.
Day was marred with poor quality mapping and inaccurately placed controls making navigation very frustrating.
Some local knowledge would have been handy, with controls sometimes being up to 100m out of place.
But we still managed 8th place overall and again 1st mixed pair, so happy enough.
Another event on next weekend, the organiser was competing yesterday and promises better mapping and correct placing of controls.
We're thinking of heading up, depending on weather of course.
Anyone else who fancies it is welcome to join us.

[Paul]

Well done guys...!! Hardy weather too id say...!

Pity about the poor mapping...

[mickfarrell]

So meself and Rose completed Rd.3 yesterday.
Long journey up on icy roads, nearly had the better of us on the way home.
Looks like we had a 10th place overall, but nothing confirmed yet.
95% on the road, would have been better off on the road bikes.
The short off-road sections were generally down a track and back up the same, easily done on foot.
Nice scenery, which sort of made up for the lack of off-road riding, but not really.
Rd.4 ain't too far from Tollymore, hopefully it'll be a better one.

[mickfarrell]

Trailquest Rd. 4 on next Sunday, 16th January.
Rose and meself are definitely going.
A good 3.5 hour spin for anyone who fancies it?

[mickfarrell]

So meself and Rose went up last Sunday for Rd.5 of Trailquest.
We were lying 3rd overall in the league up to this, but it wasn't to be our day.
I mangled the rear mech in the spokes, bending a spoke, breaking the hanger and bending the life out of the swing arm about 40 mins into it.
Really only had one choice, convert to a single speed and head home.
Unfortunately we dropped to 6th overall for the league out of 80 teams, but we enjoyed most of it.
Don't think we'd do the whole series again as it's a lot of driving, and a couple of the events were primarily on the road but I would recommend trying a couple of them out next year for anyone who hasn't.
I reckon the best one was in Dromara, though Rd.5 was around Tollymore, probably would have been the best if we had got to see it all. Rd. 2 in Lady Dixon was good for off road trails though they were icy and the mapping was useless which let the event down.
Anyways, they did asked if we'd try running one down our end of the country, I'd be on for it but do I have the time?
Would anyone be willing to help me? Sure let me know.

[Paul]

Hard luck guys on the last round but good performance over the whole series....!

Pity you didnt get to see Tollymore, its a lovely spot for biking..!!