From Saturday onwards the Irish started to arrive in Praloup.  Unable to practice the race course, most had a few spins through the Praloup bike park in the following few days until practice started on Wednesday.

The Pits

The Irish competitors were as follows:

Women 30-34

Maeve Baxter

Michele McMullan

Nathalie Jedda

60+ Men

Derek Cowan

50-54 Men

Tom Sheridan

Peter Popham

40-44 Men

Carl Young

Stephen Davidson

Colin Finley

35-39 Men

Joe Ward

Geoff Walker

Nigel Elder

Ian McIntyre

30-34 Men

Sean Herilhy

Andy Yoong

Alan Jordan

Dale McMullan

Damien Duggan

Kenneth Murphy

Mark Tiernan

Gavin Doran

Michael Cowan

The Epic crew

The CRC crew

The Flow Crew

 

No Fear/ISO2 Nutrition's Geoff Walker

Tuesday – course walking

Sign on opened on Tuesday morning with 500+ riders queuing for hours to get signed on before practice started on Wednesday morning.  Course walking started at 12 noon with mixed impressions of the course.  Initially the phrase ‘there’s nothing in it’ was used until further inspection by walking discovering the off camber course, similar to the 2007 world champs course had a lot of tricky sections with a similar ‘Irish’ feeling river crossing on the bottom section.

The Uplift queue

Wednesday – 1^st practice day

Practice started at 9-11 and 1-3pm for the 30-34 and 35-39 age groups, with alternative practice for the 40+ and womens categories between 11-1pm and 3-5pm.  The Irish seemed happy with the quantity of practice runs followed by a course walk to see how the course had changed with so many riders competing.  Talk of the day was tyre choice with most opting for the usual suspects of minions, high rollers, cut spikes and the new Schwable Muddy Mary’s.  Either way, anything that could grip the dust was the optimum tyre choice.

Bad news came during practice from the course that Tom Sheridan had taken a nasty crash about half way up the course just after the quarry section.  Tom was stretchered down the course by the local paramedics and after an x-ray it was shown that he had badly broken one of the ribs in his upper back. 

The day ended off in La Loup Blanc, the usual haunt of the Irish with over 20 dining and some heading staying for a few extra.

Thursday – 2^nd practice day

The second practice day was the same format as the first.  As riders started to tire and aches and pains showed with plenty of grazes and bumps, Tom Sheridan appeared from the camper looking much improved and in a lot better form.  Course walking started in the evening to see what damage had been done to the course during practice.  With more dust appearing it was difficult to see what was grippy and what wasn’t. 

The opening ceremony took place in the evening following the meal in La Loup Blanc followed by an impressive fireworks display.  Some of the Irish ended up in Lou’s discussing the days going ons and what the following day would bring.

Friday – Qualifying Day

Friday morning started with a bit of a rush to the lift queue with all 500+ riders practicing together in a two hour period between 9-11am.  The downhillers woke to find numerous aches and pains, with many not having had full nights sleep with pre-qualifying nerves kicking in.  Meanwhile the cross country racing started at 8.30am with the 60+ mens .  Epic’s Beth McCluskey raced at 11am in the womens 30-39 category and ended up taking the bronze medal.

Beth McCluskey

The downhillers started to return to the pit area after practice with the initial rush proving unnecessary with most riders only wanting to complete one practice run as qualifying would run from 1pm until 5pm continuously.  About 12.30 the nervous vet and lady riders started to make their way to the top of the course…….

The Irish ladies

In the ladies category 30-34 Maeve Baxter came down in second place with a time of 4.46.70, almost 14 seconds away from first place leaving it all to be done in her race run.  Meanwhile Michele McMullan and Nathalie Jedda placed in 6^th and 7^th consecutively.

One of the Irish?

In the 60+ category Derek Cowan registered a time of 5.58.13 placing his 7^th in his category.

With hopes of competing gone, Tom Sheridan settled himself to spectate and teammate Peter Popham completed his qualifying time with a time of 5.21.22, placing him 29^th in the 50-54 category.

In the vets category the Irish lads of Colin Finley, Carl Young and Stevie Davidson all competed for top spot with Colin Finley qualifying in 28^th position with a time of 4.24.78 with Carl Young and Stevie Davidson completing their runs in the 4.32/4.33 times, however, Stevie Davidson had a puncture during his qualifying at the stream section leaving him unsure of his potential time.

The 35-39 category came as the sun was hot in the sky.  Spanish Tomes Misser registered the fastest time of the day 3.36.63 to take the hot seat.  Best of the Irish was Joe Ward who completed his qualifying run in a time of 4.04.08 and qualified in 16^th position.  Ian McIntyre looked fast at the finish line and ended up in 24^th place, in the same second as Geoff Walker who finished in 25^th place with a time of 4.07.15.  Meanwhile Nigel Elder completed his seeding in a time of 4.30.51 and ended up in 67^th position.

The young masters of the 30-34 age group were well spread out throughout an hour with Tomes Misser’s brother, Pau, registering the fastest time in this category with a time of 3.39.26.  Fastest of the Irish was Andy Yoong who completed his qualifying in a time of 3.47.02 ending up in 5^th place, however, he had also punctured at the stream section.  Mark Tiernan had a good run and completed it in a time of 3.58.42 to place him 16^th.  Dale McMullan finished his qualifying with a time of 4.00.76 to place 20^th.  Michael Cowan had a problem with his forks and crashed to end up off the course but managed a respectable 4.06.70 to place 36^th.  Next up Gav Doran and Sean Herilhy completed their runs in the 4.29 second finishing 88^th and 89^th consecutively with Sean having numerous crashes and hoping for a better time in his race run.  Damien Duggan also came down with a bad run having crashed twice and only managing a time of 4.33.80 finishing in 95^th place.

The irish camp

Meanwhile Ken Murphy completed his qualifying with a time of 4.55.17 finishing in 113^th position and Alan Jordan also had a couple of crashes and only managed a time of 5.25.55 finishing in 120^th position.

It was an early night for most riders with some working hard to fixing mechanicals and tinkering with bikes in order to get everything 100% for race morning.

 

Saturday – Race Day

Race morning started early with riders up to try to get a couple of runs in to attempt to re-learn the course after the changes from qualifying.  A few practice runs, bike tinkering and the nerves settled in to get ready for racing that started at 1.15pm.

The mens XC race took place during practice with Irish rider Peter Buggle having lead from the start of the race, dropped down a few places but managed to hold on to third place to take home a bronze medal for the Irish XC lads.

Peter Buggle leads the start in the XC race

Racing started soon afterwards and it was ladies off first with the 35+ category, followed by the 30-34 category of which 3 of the Irish ladies were competing.

Maeve Baxter completed her run with a time of 4.48.53 to take second place and a silver medal to compliment her existing silver medal and European gold medal.  Michele McMullan completed her race run with a time of 5.13.99 to take fifth place in the category with Nathalie Jedda completing her run in a time of 5.22.11 finishing in 7^th place.

The 60+ category saw Derek Cowan complete his run with plenty of ‘offs’ in a time of 6.38.78 to finish 7^th place in the category.  Next up the 50-54 age group saw Peter Popham finish in 26^th place with a time of 5.21.06. 

Banana Man Carl Young

40-44 age group was competed by three Irish, Carl Young, Stevie Davidson and Colin Finley.  Stevie Davidson finished best of the Irish in 25^th placed with a time of 4.22.42, followed by Carl Young who took 31^st place with a time of 4.29.04 with Colin Finley completing his run with a time of 4.32.23 finishing in 34^th place.  Impressive results for the Irish vets as 75 riders competed in the heavily contested final.

Stevie D takes the hotseat

The 35-39 age group saw almost 100 riders take part to try to claim top spot.  The fastest time of the day was registered in this category by Tomas Misser with a time of 3.35.50, an impressive 11 seconds ahead of second place.  Best of the Irish saw Ian McIntyre spent some quality time in the hot seat and ended up in 12^th place with a time of 4.01.97.  Meanwhile Joe Ward had mechanicals on his race run but still managed a respectable 14^th place with a time of 4.04.47.  Geoff Walker completed his race run in a time of 4.05.77 to finish in 18^th place with Nigel Elder finishing in 63^rd place with a time of 4.34.56.

Ian Mac on the 35-39 hotseat

The young masters completed the racing on Saturday evening with 140 riders competing in the 30-34 age group.  All eyes were on Andy Yoong (aka Honcho) who had put in the fastest time in qualifying.  Andy came down the hill in an amazing time of 3.47.13, the exact same time as French rider Lilian Sergent sitting in joint third.  However, it came to light that Honcho was to be awarded the bronze medal having had the fastest split time giving the Irish another reason for celebration.

Dale on the hotseat

Michael on the hotseat

Next up in the Irish was Dale McMullan who completed his race run with a time of 3.56.73 to finish in 12^th place.  Michael Cowan completed his run a second slower than Dale to finish in 16^th place.  Mark Tiernan had a fast race run making up more time on the lower section of the course to finish in 23rd place with a time of 3.59.13. 

Sean Herilhy completed his race in a time of 4.28.80 to finish in 88^th place, while Damo Duggan also had a tumble to finish in 92th place with a time of 4.31.59.  Gav Doran completed his race run in a time of 4.46.59 with a great crash for the spectators on the dusty berm coming into the last section to finish in 107^th place with Kenneth Murphy not far behind finishing in 115^th place with a time of 5.00.23 and Alan Jordan completed the irish contingent with a time of 5.18.98 to finish in 116^th place.

Some of the Irish on race morning

The presentation ceremony took place soon afterwards with Maeve and Honcho receiving their silver and bronze medals.  The partying started in La Loup Blanc with some French karaoke with all the Irish having a go with the vocals.  Bronze medal went to Ian Mac for his opening solo of Country Roads with the silver medal for the karaoke went to Ken Murphy for his version of Lady Marmalade.  However, gold medal goes to the Irish crew headed by Irish recruit Andrew Titley for Oasis’ Champagne Supernova when everyone in the bar took part in the song.

Ladies Podium

Mens Podium

The night finished off in Lou’s and some may have even visited the local nightclub.  With flights and boats to catch, the Irish cleared out of Praloup on Sunday feeling sad it was the last year that they would host the world masters.  Will the Irish be making as big a show in Brazil in 2010?

A big congratulations to the Irish DH and XC medal winners, particularly Maeve and Honcho who done Irish cycling proud by bringing home the host of medals.  Congratulations to everyone for taking part of making it a very memorable occasion for all involved.