Rd 1 Gravity Enduro Ballinastoe 13-4-14

Last weekend saw the first round of the Irish gravity enduro held in Ballinastoe. Co.Wicklow. Ireland.
So whats this endurooo you speak of ? And why is it different to other disciplines of mountain biking like downhill or cross country? Well its not really that different to them. It usually is a two day event eg. practice on Sat and racing on Sun, which combines the fitness of cross county riding and technique of downhill racing on a specific enduro bike. An enduro bike combines the the two disciplines of bikes ( downhill and xc ) to make a machine that is capable of climbing efficiently for long days out racing and enough  suspension travel for fast downhill control. This is a true test of skill fitness and machine as riders tackle all terain in all weather while using the same bike for all 5 to 6 special stages. A perfect combination of competition and a great day out on the bikes with all your friends.

SATURDAY : PRACTICE DAY

Practice day finally came after a long day in school the day before which made me very excited for this weekend as it's official....race season has started and no better way than to start it off with an enduro in fine spring weather. Anyway enough of that waffle. I woke up nice and early with excitement and had my pre-bike feed of porridge and chopped banana. Jumped in the car with my very supportive mother and my Lapierre Zesty 414. which was my weapon of choice for the weekend and off we went down to Wicklow to be there for 10am for sign on. I arrived at about ten to ten too meet my friend who I would be going around with for the day and to sign on but there was already a queue sadly and due to that my wave for sunday was 11:26 which was later then what I would have liked. The weather was mediocre compared to the days leading up to the event, it stared drizzling half way through the day and I was worried about the trails and how they would be for racing on the next day but it turned out later on in the day to be sunny and warm, which was great. We sessioned every trail (besides stage 4) and picked our lines for the next day.  Stage 4 was closed  to prevent it getting wrecked for race day and if you where found on it you could be penalized with a 1 minute time penalty.You were able to walk it which we didn't and not many did. It would be a blind and exciting stage to us all. Overall a good days practicing and seeing friends I haven't seen since last season,went home for a big feed and a nice big clean of the bike.

Cleaning the bike for the big day the next morning :)

Sunday: Race day....

After hitting the bed nice and early and visualising the stages in my head as I rest I was feeling good for the day I had ahead of me even though I would not be to hard on myself for this race, as I did not have too much preparation due to mechanical reasons and so on. I had my feed and had my kit and bags packed all ready to hit the road. I arrived at 10:30am to give me time to settle down and get ready for my wave at 11:26am....11:26am came and I was going through scrutiny and then turned Strava on and off I went on the transition to stage 1 which was basically the second highest stage after stage 5. Thirty minutes later I was ready to hit my first stage of the Gravity Enduro rd 1 .

Stage 1 : This stage started of with a nice natural rooty trail in woods with many good line choices but some roots were snakey roots and you had to look out for the odd one or two that would catch you out, then brought you out into an open trail that was fun and tricky in places and then onto a bit of trail centre stuff. Every thing was going relatively well until I came through a corner too fast and a bit too low and hit my shoulder with a tree - this lost me a bit of time due to me completely stopping and going off the track. The rest went well.

Stage 2 : This was mainly a trail centre stage with one fire road sprint and a natural bit but don't get me wrong this was still a very physical hard stage despite the trail centre trails..overall this stage went well for me!

Stage 3 : This was my favourite stage of the event by far,mostly all newly built natural fun fast turns with jumps and minimal trail centre trails. This stage went well for me :)

Stage 3 open jump fun section ( Credit to Action pictures Ireland )

Stage 3 ( Credit & thanks to Action pictures Ireland )

Stage 4 : This stage was the blind stage no one rode the day before. The trail was fast, sloppy and tiring! All was good considering I have never been on the trail but just about 80 metres before the end of the stage my chain dropped,due to that I lost valuable time as I thought I was going well for the stage.

End of stage 4 into a hip jump.Picture thanks to Keith Wallace

Stage 5 : Stage 5 finally came after three and a half hours of riding. This would be the highest stage and probably the longest stage of them all, I had an energy gel and off I went to hit the stage. This stage was mostly natural freshly built bits.Some of the fastest bits were in this stage with a few sprints and so on. The stage went well until I dropped my chain after a rough bit of trail, again I lost valuable time. Got back on and powered to the finish.

Finishing Stage 5 (Credit to Action Pictures Ireland)

Overall one of the best events so far i've been to, it was a fantastic event and ran so smoothly with no error what so ever. I placed 194th out of 350 riders and 13th out of 20 in my age category of 14 to 18, was happy with my result considering I had a few mistakes and a few mechanical issues. Roll on the next Gravity Enduro held in Ticknock Co.Dublin. on the 17th of may. You can find the results at: http://www.sportident.co.uk/results/2014/GravityEnduro.ie-Ballinastoe/

Would like to say thanks to Action Pictures Ireland for all the fantastic action pictures...You can head on to there site to catch more of there action and even get pictures printed in high quality./http://www.actionpicturesireland.com/