Rd 2 XC NPS held in Ticknock 10-5-14

Today saw the second round of the Irish XC NPS hosted by MAD MTB held in Ticknock forest Co. Dublin. Ireland
There was a slight change for this race as it was to be held on a Saturday other then the usual Sunday racing due to the Giro d'italia road race visiting Dublin the next day. Woke up Saturday morning not feeling race ready for sure, I woke early to give me plenty of time to have breakfast and to go to a friends house who had a bottle cage as I did not have one but sadly it did not fit so I would just have to be bottle less for racing like Slade Valley two weeks ago!
 Racing for U16,U14 and Senior 4 was for 12 noon and I was to doing U16 which was 2 full laps which felt just about right. As usual I didn't keep to the time and was rushing to get ready to get down to race start.
The course was to start with few hundred meters of sprinting on tom's climb fire road then a 180 degree left hander and up the short yet techy-rooty climb into lower "forgotten" which was great as the leg guns kicked in and the barons where biting as always, back out onto a steep hardpack trail and then swinging a left into lower Kings Highway.

Start of single track,first rooty climb

Now this is where I would love a 29er as we dropped onto the tarmac climb where I passed and fought riders on then a sharp left hander onto a grassy climb with a cool rock garden, again I felt good as I climbed on too upper metro and as we road it in reverse.
Meters to the top you where happily greeted with supportive shouting and cheering as you swing into the left in to fun classic xc styled decent the "schizzle" even with a cool mini gap jump. Meters into this trail your happy that your not on a big wagon wheel (29er) as my 26 inch wheels makes great work of the tight rooty twisting trail. Soon after you'll be rolling over large granite rollers which I new of as I did them a few friday's previous to the race for some practice.

Granite rollers (picture thanks to Willy Bennett) 

 Then onto the brand new section "ripper" which was fun and fast then onto a fire road and tarmac climb which brought you back onto the lower Kings Highway then onto these class fun fast bus stops which all went good besides one on lap 1 then perfect on lap 2 then back onto the fire road we first started on ready to do it all again ! :)
I ended out coming 5th in a tough field of 9 strong riders which I was delighted as it was a tough course for everyone ! The hard racing should contribute to next weeks Gravity Enduro race held in Ticknock again!  Results : http://www.elitetiming.co.uk/Results/NPS_2014_RD2.pdf                                    

Trying to keep ahead of joseph (picture thanks to Willy Bennett) 

Over all a fantastic event hosted by MAD MTB....A shout out to Fergal and all his trail building minions as they did great work on the course.

Steep and tight, trying to hold joseph off :p

A big thumbs up even when times are tough (picture thanks to Willy Bennett)