Irish NPS Round 6 - Waterford

September 06

by Nigel Elder

The sixth round of the Zeal Optics NPS saw us heading down south to one of my favourite tracks of last year, Tom Power’s White Horse track in Waterford, a city that is renowned the world over for it’s quality crystal, it’s become pretty well known for it’s quality DH tracks too. Unfortunately this year we were missing the presence of last year’s organiser Tom Power. Tom has taken a year out to travel and race in the America’s, taking in some of the NORBA’s and doing some intensive training to increase his staying power. It seems that the training is paying dividends, after a recent workout on a secluded beach in America he has proven that he can go on for more than 7 minutes! Keep up the good work Tom!

In Tom’s absence, Bobby St.Ledger and Mark Hutchinson took on the task of running the race, being their first time organising a race, there were bound to be a few teething problems, but more on that later.

The track was a mix of last years track with a few new sections put in. The start was as last year, a 10ft scaffolding start ramp got the riders up to speed for the first jump, veer left and on towards the first gap jump, an 8ft gap with a 6ft drop, upon landing it was a sharp left hander with a small berm to aid cornering and set you up for the first rock garden, from here there was a short run up to a kicker over a 10ft gap, pallets had been placed here for Saturdays practice to allow riders of all abilities to have a go without the worry of coming up short, which believe me, most were ! From here it was down and into a nice right hand berm/wallride, hit this right and you were spat out at mach velocity and down towards the second rock garden, this caused problems for a few riders, from the bright natural light of the open bem they were plunged into the dull flat light of the woods at break neck speed!

Make it through the rock garden and rejoin the old track with a small transfer into the exit of last year’s second berm. From here it was familiar territory, a straight into a set of doubles on the next left hander, straight on and over the wall drop into an immediate right hand berm, over the wall again and onto the off-camber towards a tight left/right between two trees that were barely as wide as your bars. This was followed by a right-hander and a sprint towards the tabletop. Last years rocky chute had been bypassed for this year, instead the track stayed left of the chute and took a path through another rock garden, this led down through some singletrack with a small step down and on towards a small set of doubles.

From here there was a right-hander followed by a left-hander and straight on towards, yes, you guessed it, another rock garden! This was followed by a right, left, right combination that brought you out onto a straight run towards last years gap jump, after this jump being left out last year, the track builders had undertaken a lot of work to have it included for this year. A northshore style platform provided the launch pad over a 27ft gap with a 7ft drop onto a fairly steep landing transition with a 35ft run into a huge right-hander berm. As this berm was only recently constructed and not bed in properly, it provided plenty of entertainment for riders and spectators alike, the berm was really loose and dusty, with clouds of powder roost being flung into the air as the riders tried to negotiate this turn flat out.
On the exit of the berm the riders had just enough time to regain composure for the next left hander hairpin bringing them around 180 degrees and onto the finishing straight. This consisted of a sprint along the top of the embankment which ran parallel to the estuary leading down to the finish on the shore.

This has been one of the most fun tracks of the year so far, the gap jump played mental mind games with the riders, some of whom were concerned that they couldn’t see the landing until they were a bikes length from the end of the take off, by which stage you were either fully committed or about to be admitted, to A&E that is! Thankfully no one was injured on this jump, after watching numerous riders roll up to the take off on Saturday to try and gauge the speed needed to clear the gap, when they finally got the bottle up to go for it they were cheering with exhilaration when they made it. Even the few riders who came up short and cased the landing were able to hold it together and get away with it.

Come Sunday morning there was a total of 108 riders signed on to race, and back to the teething problems I mentioned earlier. Being first time organisers, sign on was a little haphazard, being a case of joining the queue and taking whatever number you were given. To add insult to injury, on Saturday night the organisers were denied access to an adjacent field that was to be used as the uplift route, resulting in a lengthy detour and causing havoc with Sunday mornings practice, the landowner at one point even phoned the Garda (Irish police) about mtb’ers trespassing on her land as they walked back to the top of the track! Fair play to Bobby and Mark, in the face of adversity they kept it together and the race went ahead as planned, a steep learning curve and no mistake, still, it will stand them in good stead come next years NPS.

U14
Once again Gavin Carroll took the win onboard his recently acquired Scott Hi-Octane to post a time of 01.43.996. Robbie Reid (Bikecology) took second with his time of 01.51.757, third place went to Marc Potts (Bikecology) with his time of 01.53.867, fourth place went to Taryan Lewis who finished on 01.56.093, and fifth place went to Robert Duggan (KillarneyDH) with his time of 01.56.093. Mucho respect to all of the above, these lads all hit the gap jump without hesitation!!

U16
As usual, Ewan Doherty (Breathe/eze fitness) took the win with his time of 01.30.596, posting the third fastest time of the day in the process! Second place went to Colin Franklin (EpicDH) who finished on 01.34.352, Jason Murphy (KillarneyDH) took third with his time of 01.35.834. Fourth place went to Matthew Coulter who finished on 01.39.266, and fifth place went to David Galvin (KillarneyDH) with his time of 01.39.328.

Ladies
TC Racings Aoife O’Donoghue took the win today with her time of 02.30.623, leaving CRC’s Michele Macartney to take second with her time of 02.31.801. The ladies were missing our recently crowned Irish Champ, Meave Baxter who is out with a broken ankle which she sustained on a recent trip to Whistler, get well soon Meave.

Vets
Banana man Carl Young took the win today with his time of 01.49.234, second place went to David Macmanus (021Racing) who finished on 01.56.796. Richie Byrne (EpicDH) had a nasty accident on his first run, when dipping into the chicken run at the gap jump Richie caught his forearm on a stub of a branch and ripped open his arm, resulting in the loss of a lot of blood, the sight of which was obviously too much for one of the spectators who promptly fainted! Get well soon Richie.

Super Vets
With only one entry today, Peter Popham could have stopped for tea and biscuits and still secured the win, so in the absence of physical opposition Peter raced against the clock and posted a time of 02.21.287.

Senior
Ciaran Steger Hoey (PLUSH) put his new Sunday to work and took the win with his time of 01.37.401. Second place went to Sean Murphy (021Racing) with his time of 01.38.237, third place went to Bruce Murphy (EpicDH) who finished on 01.44.859, fourth place went to Ryan McGuire with his time of 01.48.349, and fifth place went to Jonny Coates (PLUSH) who finished on 01.48.390.

Masters
Now here’s a surprise, Ian (McGinty) McIntyre (PLUSH) took the win today with his time of 01.40.695, looks like his recent trip to the Masters Worlds has boosted Ian’s confidence, well done mate, a win’s a win. Second place went to Mark Dickson (PLUSH) with his time of 01.44.263, third place went to Stewart Carr (EpicDH) with his time of 01.52.866, fourth place went to Marcus Mackey (Bikecology) who finished on 01.53.523, and Fifth place went to Shane Murphy who finished on 01.56.253. Joe Ward (PLUSH/POTATO BRED) had a crash in the second rock garden, he tried to pedal through this section and clipped a pedal resulting in him being thrown off his bike and hitting a tree backwards with his shoulder, hope your feeling better Joe, the injury is bad enough, but now you’re going to have to listen to McGinty about being beat twice this year, lol.

Junior
Dan Wolfe took the win today with his time of 01.26.492, posting the second fastest time of the day in the process. Second place went to Richie Smith (TC Racing) who finished on 01.29.388. Third place went to Gareth McKee with his time of with his time of 01.35.709, fourth place went to Stephan Gormley who finished on 01.40.008, and fifth place went to Paul Cummins who made his comeback to racing after his nasty crash at Willingen earlier this year to post a time of 01.41.148 onboard his short travel Specialized SX. Unfortunately on his second run Paul went down hard on the berm after the gap jump, the loose surface sucked in Paul’s front wheel when his forks fully compressed and spat unceremoniously spat him over the bars, thankfully he got up like a good martini, shaken but not stirred! Hope you’re feeling better mate.

Elite
It was a Wolfe brothers double victory today as Gerard Wolfe took the win with his time of 01.26.492, posting the fastest time of the day in the process, and all without his skin suit. Second place went to Jamie (Turkey) McCullough (First Tracks/Revolution) who finished on 01.30.047, third place went to Stephen Beattie (PLUSH) who finished on 01.31.452, fourth place went to Darren Quille with his time of 01.31.798, and fifth place went to Ricky Lawrence (PLUSH) who made his comeback to racing after crushing 2 vertebrae in his back a few months ago in France to post his time of 01.32.189, looks like the body armour aint slowing you down too much Ricky.

A great weekend that was marred slightly by the plonker in the red BMW who played his only rave cd at full volume until the early hours of Sunday morning, keeping all who camped awake until 2.30am, nice one mate!
 
With the racing concluded it was time for the podiums and prize giving, the look on Ian Mac’s face when the masters winner was announced as Ian McGinty was priceless, may have something to do with your illegible hand writing mate.

So once again it’s time to thank our series sponsor, Zeal Optics for supplying prizes for the top 3 in each category. A big thanks also goes to Bobby and Mark for putting this event on, also to David Macmanus who spent countless hours giving Bobby and Mark a hand with the digging and track preparation, cheers lads.

The next race will be held at Clasnacrona on the 1st of October. There will of course be the Epic Blast on the 17th of September to be held in Ballinastoe, until the next time, it’s over and out!