O'Shaughnessy and Baxter retain the Louth MTB Championships

One thing you can always depend on is the Irish weather, Monday night, we’ve finished marking the Louth Championship course, it’s dry, it’s fast, it’s flowy and the forecast is for ‘some’ rain the following day.  20 hours later, it’s like a scene from a 1970’s horror movie , low level cloud shrouding the hills, persistent rain, torrents of water flowing down the hillsides and single tracks and all the holes and ruts you normally avoid have been filled with lying water.  All that was left to complete it was an Irish Wolfhound roaming the hillside howling.  All joking aside, the conditions could have been better, but you can’t let the weather hinder or stop the race, especially the Louth Championships.  On the night, 16 riders signed on for the race, I presume that more would have entered had the weather conditions been more favourable.  Unlike the MTB League races, when it comes to the Championship race there are no handicaps and no intervals between riders, it’s a mass start, elbows out jostling for position and full gas from the start.

The course at just under 15km, with over 550m of climb, comprising of an initial fire road section leading to the open mountain, a mixture of all terrains, vicious climbs and fast flowy descents made all the more difficult by the new water hazards which had formed, finishing with a technical forest section and a 600m fire road sprint to the finish.

From the off, club rider Ray O’Shaughnessy took the lead with visiting rider Conor Kavanagh sitting close to his back wheel and club rider Michael Wilson moving into 3^rd place after the first 800m of racing.  The positions of the 3 riders didn’t change through the course of race, Conor losing some time on Ray through a mechanical and one or two lapses of concentration resulting in him having two minor crashes and Michael had to stop on several occasions to fix direction arrows which had been disturbed by the weather or wildlife.  Meanwhile the 3 ladies were battling it out tooth and nail, club rider’s Sandra O’Hagan and Sarah Fagan and visiting rider Meave Baxter were all looking for the honours on the night, changing positions several times during the course of the race.  A couple of minor crashes by Sandra allowed Meave to increase her lead at the front with Sarah moving down into 3^rd place, positions not changing  for the remainder of the race.

All riders finished and accounted for, showered and in the Lumpers Bar, sharing stories of near misses and not so near misses over a coffee or a pint of whatever ails them.  John from the Lumpers did the honours of presenting the medals and the Louth Championship jersey to the ladies and Debbie Lundy (race marshal and photographer extraordinaire) presented to the men.  A huge thanks goes to Fra Murphy, Debbie Lundy and John Grifferty for timekeeping and marshalling, without the volunteers that do these jobs, races just wouldn’t happen.  Thanks to John from the Lumpers for the use of the piping hot showers and the lounge to carry out the presentations.  And finally to the riders, without you, there’d be no race and no craic.

Mens Louth MTB Champion –      Ray O’Shaughnessy
2^nd                                                           Conor Kavanagh
3^rd                                                            Michael Wilson

Womens Louth MTB Champion – Meave Baxter
2^nd                                                            Sandra O’Hagan
3^rd                                                             Sarah Fagan

Round 8 of the Cuchulainn  MTB League will be on Tuesday 9^th July @ 7pm.   All visiting club riders and guests are welcome to compete as long as they hold a current (2013) Cycling Ireland Licence.