Rd 1 Munster enduro series at Tracton woods 6-4-14

Last weekend saw the first Munster enduro held in Tracton woods just outside Carrigaline Co.Cork. It was sort of a spontaneous trip as there was no need to pre-enter so we had no finalized plans until Friday night. The format for the race was run slightly differently then what I am used in the Irish Gravity Enduros, there is no practice in this series so there was no need to head down on Saturday which made me take it easy and keep all my energy for the Sunday racing. To compensate for no practice you could compleat the stages twice but must be immediatley repeated eg. stage 1,stage 1,stage 2 stage 2 and so on,your fastest time counts for each stage.

Sunday came and I was feeling fresh and thought it would be a good day..I was to be picked up for 7:45am by the mighty Alan ayling, loaded up the bike which was my trusty Lapierre Zest 414. Next stop to Conor lavelle house for around 8am and back out for our last pick up at Gavin O Connell house for about 8:15am and off from Dublin to Cork for about 11:30am as the track are open from 12am and each tracks have a cut off time to be there before and to get your two runs in if you wanted for example stage 1 closes at 1:30pm.

After sitting in the car for 3 and a half hours with one small pee brake on the motorway we arrived at Tracton woods at around 11:40 just in time for sign on. sign on was swift and fast thanks to the lads at MBCC (mountain bike club of cork).

Race runs

Off we went to hit the 100% natural forest trails eg. there is no hardpack machine made gravel trails.

Stage 1 : Stage one was very slippy and muddy due to rain fall the night before. first run felt not as smooth as I would of liked it to be so went up again to hit it again, I new the trail no and the dangers of it so the second run felt way better

Stage 2 : The start of this stage felt as if it would be grate fun due to the fast downhill at the start but it ended up to be the most pedaly stage and longest so far of them all so I put down my head and got down to work but did not want to blow up and put the rest of my day in jeopardise by having no energy for other stages...I only hit this stage once.

Stage 3 : This stage was my favourite of the day so far as it had a big mix of everything, fast downs and techy fun kickers..A nice fireroad sprint added to the fun, then onto a fast lose slippy, shoot then a off camber trail winding through the trees to the finnish.I went up again with my friends to see if we can compleat it again but faster but it did not work out for me as my chain droped on the first turn after that it went really good, I say I could of done better if it was not for the chain drooping.

Stage 4 : After climbing to this stage i went to be time in to my stage and realizing it was not beeping, I tryed repeatability after for 5 minutes but nothing after ! Soon after I went to do the stage in case it did beep, meeters into the stage I heard a big sound. looked back and my mech was in a bit of a hoop so that ended my day sadly.

When I got back to registration to ask in why my tag would not beep and found out my timing tag went dead. So I would not receive my previous stage times as it was dead.

Over all a great day dispite the timing chip failing on me and my mech blowing on my but sure thats racing for you. A good day for my friends who came down in the car with me. With Conor taking 2nd place in under  20s and Gavin taking 2nd to in 20s to 40s category.

Conor tacking 2nd place

Gavin taking 2nd pace

   Results can be found at :  http://mbcc.ie/munsterEnduro/results/Atec%20Munster%20Enduro%202014%20-%20Round%201_All_Categories.html