Ok race report or in my case goober report
, Practice course yesterday was fantastic. The sun shining down and trails dry we could not have asked for anything more. I was fairly excited about today only to find out when I woke this morning mother nature had other ideas. But as I always say what can ya expect when ya live in a damp s**thole off the west coast of Europe. It was not going to get me down, so on with the rain jacket and off I headed to ticknok. I arrived about ten and numbers did appear to dwindle from yesterday but still a good crowd of hardy souls stuck it out and braved the now driving rain. I made a last minute decision to switch to flats which was both a good idea and bad. Ill start with the bad, I hadnt been on flats in about three years and surprisingly its not just like riding a bike you actually forget to place your feet back further and not on the ball of your foot. I found this out the hard way on stage 1 which I had neglected to warm up for also. Had a disaster of a run and actually came off the slope towards the end and skidded right down. Had to lift the bike back up onto the track which at the end of the stage took a while seeing as I was knackered from the stage and fit to drop no mind climbing up a slope with a heavy bike. It was a nice way to wake yourself up on a Sunday morning
. I didnt however let this get me down and headed onto stage two thinking ill be more warmed up and used to the flats so will do much better.
This however was not to be and stage 2 turned into a repeat of stage 1. It started well, I dropped onto the fireroad crossed over and dropped again but took it too wide and hit the ditch at the side, just to make it better some dude got a perfect photo of me flaffing myself
.Typical I thought but got back up on the bike and pushed on. The second bit of stage 2 was getting pretty slompy now and grip was not the best especially with the off camber roots. I eventually got to the end but at this stage was really getting down and thinking ill never get the hang of this mountain biking malarky
. Despite the crushed ego I was determined to finish the race so headed on up to stage 3. This went really well and I got the hang of it then. Was used to the flats had warmed up and was just throwing myself into the drops turns and berns. When I got to the end I was ecstatic and was back thinking I was the bees knees again (relatively speaking for a goober).
. Forward with this new confidence I headed on to stage 4 laughing and chatting with some the lads from MAD. I was geared up now and ready to rock. Stage 4 again went well for me I had really gained in confidence and was loving every minute of it. Despite the rain the trails held up very well and again was flying through with no real major gaffs. So that done I headed back up to complete stage 5 again beaming thinking how much I love mountain biking and bulling that I started so late in life
.Stage 5 started up on the ninja express only to turn off to the right and into the woods. It was a bit slompy again but I manged to stay on the bike and push though although it was not as flowy as the other trails. I still thought I was doing alright and getting down to the second part it I crossed onto the (zig zags ?) This is where my tyre blew as I hit a rock fairly hard and just heard the dreaded ppssssttttt.
. Started thinking will I fix or will I run so just picked the bike up and ran to the end.
I was really disappointed with this but suppose its all part of the race.
Respect to MAD and all the effort they put into the trails they did a fantastic job. Organisation was top notch also and there was a great atmosphere all over the place. I hope this will be a regular thing as I for one will def be going back for more
