Cloon Winter DH Race 23-2-14

My first race of the 2014 race season and my first ever downhill race held in Cloon woods by my club Gravity BC in the very center of the scenic glacier formed Glencree Valley just minutes away from Enniskerry village Co.Wicklow Ireland. This was a two day event from Satuarday 22 of Feb to Sunday the 23rd, Sadly I could not attend practice day as I had agreed to go on a Camp/Hike around the Wicklow hills with my scout group not that far from cloon woods itself.
In the days running up to the event I helped vastly in getting the race track to tip top condition and the helped in the construction of a new rock garden to connect an existing top section to other lower existing section via soft ground and a new bottom section. So with those days I had a few practice sessions and my lines all picked ready for when I arrived on Sunday.

helping building part of lower section of cloon

RACE DAY...

Race day came I woke up early to get a big healthy feed, had all my gear at the ready and got collected by the race directer and off we went. Arrived at the woods and gave a helping hand in setting up tents and so on. I signed up and I got ready for a bit of practice with all my friends. The weather was windy and drizzling a bit and was unsure of hitting jumps as they may not go to plan...After seeing a few bodies moved by the wind off the jumps in the open I was curious of hitting it as it may jeopardize my race run.
This being also my first race on my new Enduro steed the Lapierre Zesty 414 I was very exited as I was on a borrowed xc hardtail for a year previous to getting the Zesty, I felt I was being held back on the downs and not being able to let it out a bit more  on the downs like the zesty can do now.

very happy rider with my new Zesty 414

RACE RUNS...

This was a two run concept... (i.e the fastest run of the two race runs counts as your overall time.) First run did not go to plan, probably due to nervousness. Came in too fast into the first turn and slightly went off  the back of it, got back and every thing went ok but lost all my ryrhem and fluency on the bike..I just did not feel good, to add too the bad run I did not go with my instinct and did the jump out into the open. Not sure what completely happend but I did not land it correctly whether it was the wind or me being out of  focus from previous mistakes and soon after my chain came off, I had to dismount off the bike and fix that so came through with a very upset time of 2:52

me with all the gear ready for my race run

My final run went all to plan, avoided the jumps to avoid disappointment. Run went with very little or no mistakes and came through with a happy enough time of 2:08...Was happy considering  my fellow friends got times such as 2:07 and 2:05 and who are regular DHers, I was happy with that.

Over all this was a fantastic event and I thoroughly enjoyed it as my first race of the season and first DH race ever. :)
You can find the results here at this link :
http://www.gravitybc.com/cloon/cloon_results2.pdf


                       

              Practicing the first jump into the open a few days before the race when it was clamer weather (please mind the slight case :p )