MTB League Round 8

Tuesday 9^th July saw round 8 of the Cuchulainn MTB league being contested, again, on the open mountain.  The course differed from previous weeks with 2 new sections being introduced, with slightly less fire road climb, a nasty section known as “No Man’s Land” which surprisingly rides better in the wet and some very fast descents around the Castles and Aidans Canyon.  As with round 7, finishing with a technical section through the forest to end with an uphill sprint to the finish, the course almost 10km in length.

Compared to last Tuesday (2^nd July) when we raced through rivers of water, mist and fog, the mountain was extremely dry, actually dusty, however the evening temperatures are still in the high teens which could affect race performance.

As always the riders set off at the time intervals for their handicaps, starting with a quick 600m fire road sprint to commence climbing up what’s known locally as the “Mother-in-Law” and continuing on to climb up “Muddy River”, onto “No Man’s Land” and followed by a nice flowy grassy single track descent to the area locally known as “The Castles” and finishing through “Aidan’s Canyon” through the technical forest section, drop down and a 100m sprint to the line.

As predicted, the ride up through “No Man’s Land” proved to be one of the major problems for all the riders.  Last week when the ground was wet the tyre gave when it passed over, compared to the hard baked ground the riders encountered last night where the ground determined the path of the tyre.  However other sections of the course “Pot Luck” and the descent from the “Castles” past the 2 oak trees proved to be extremely fast with a lot of the riders commenting on their speed and the air they managed to get.

A particularly close finish between Gary and Stuart with only 29 seconds separating them, with Terry rounding out 3^rd place 1min 30secs behind Stuart.  All riders in safe and sound within 15mins of the 1^st place finisher, all a bit dehydrated, thirsty and ready for a sociable beer down at the Lumpers Bar.

As always, thanks have to go to this week’s timekeepers, John Sharkey and Fergus McCann.

Results of Round 8

1^st – Gary Sheils
2^nd – Stuart Holden
3^rd – Terry McEneaney

Fastest Rider

Gary Sheils – 38min 29 secs

Round 9 will be on Tuesday 16^th July @ 7pm, all visiting club riders and guests are welcome to compete as long as they hold a current (2013) Cycling Ireland Licence.