Took a little arm twisting and mug of HTFU to get Davey to go but im glad we went. Although, there were thoughts of turning around when huge snowflakes were falling on the motorway and the car was sliding a bit.
As Davey said, roadstone quarry wouldnt have a patch on this place.! The trails have never seen any maintenance it seems and are quite rocky in places. Not much fireroad apart from a 1k climb and a few hundred meters near the back. What can i say about the boardwalks..!! Their reputation-precedes them.! LETHAL..!! Its like cycling on ice, you hope to keep the bike straight, no turns or braking or your off.! Then they fire in a DH boardwalk, no chance.!! Get off and walk.
Anyway, i had a decent race for the first lap. Plenty of action and swapping places. Kept with John only a few mts back until he got a flat (go tubeless john). Had some great place swapping with Eric Murray from MAD and we finished the first lap together. Eric then put in a great burst up the climb and tech single track climb which i was struggling a bit at this point, but i figured id come back on the trails as with the first lap. Wasnt to be, one screw fell out of the cleat and it was floating around on the shoe which was uncomfortable. The other problem was i couldnt clip out which was dangerous if i had come off. Youd be caling me Chopper Mk2.!
So i knew by the time i hit the boardwalks in the last few km id have to stop. I battled on till then as stopping eariler would have lost too much time cycling with no clete. So at the boardwalks i had to stop and struggle to get my foot out of the shoe and overshoes. Walked down the boardwalk in my sock (frozen foot). i tired again to release the shoe with the multi tool, which finally came off. Got the show back on and i was away. According to the garmin it looks like i lost about 9 mins fixing the shoe malfunction and 2 places. After getting under way again i was praying for the finish as there are no grips on the show without cleats and the foot kept sliding off the pedal. Its like cycling one footed nearly.
Anyway, good day out and i if i go back to Galway again, it will be on the full suss and when they do something with the boardwalks.
Well done to Davey who was 9th in super pro. unlucky john with the 2 x flats
Well done to Emmet who was 2nd U14
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