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The competitors came from as far as New Zealand , Australia , Chile , America and all over Europe to name but a few .
We arrived in the afternoon signed on and decided to walk the track in the beautiful 26 degree sunshine .
It was a brand new track to last year and those who had been there before seemed to prefer it as it was a little more technical and challenging . The track itself was amazing , you rolled out of the gate in sixth gear put in a couple of pedal strokes and off you went , flat out speed in and out of a bomb hole , around a left hander into an off camber straight and the next thing you know you in eighth or ninth gear giving it your all on the only real place on the course that you had any real pedalling to do . The basic overall track description is that it had a flat out top section with loads of open corners and long off camber straights and the further down the course you went you had more steeper descents with tight technical turns which became very slippy and difficult to take at speed as it was like riding through a sand doon . more tight steep turns and off camber bits came up quicker and quicker before you came to my favourite bit of the course
where you had two rooty sections that became known as the rooty wall Ride bits and then you were in the open which was nuts hands firmly on the bars no brakes , all that's between you and the finish is a ski jump and the jump into the finish area , the speed you hit these two jumps at was scary it seemed like you were travelling at ninety miles an hour no ninety five but in reality it must have been a hundred no exaggeration most of us were amazed at the distance you got off the ski jump as a result of the speed .
The atmosphere and camaraderie in the Irish camp was amazing everyone sharing lines ( race lines that is ) and advise on how to ride the course and then cheering each other on I'm not sure who owned the saucepans that the CRC gang were using as drums but i doubt they're non stick anymore .
Fourteen men and two women competed from Ireland in the DH discipline with our best hopes resting on last years silver medallist Glyn O'Brien . Glyn cruised down the hill and was seeded in tenth position and put in an amazing final run to put him in the hot seat but unfortunately he ended up in a very credible sixth position a mere two seconds off the podium in what was an immensely competitive category .
This year we had a new hero in Maeve Baxter who picked up the silver medal , Maeve was less than a second off the gold and would have in fact won it but for a lack of numbers in the 35-40 category so it became a 30-40 cat instead .
Beth McCluskey from Epic took Bronze in the woman's XC race well done Beth i don't know how you guys do it !
There are a few riders that i think deserve a special mention , as you all know Michael Cowan put the knees out in his trousers and shattered his pelvis a few days before the nationals and showed some amazing determination to make it back to compete in masters worlds seven weeks later although he was back on his xc machine only four weeks later it just shows what can be achieved with some positive thinking and some super glue.
A special thanks has to go to B D tuned for keeping us all running smoothly for the week we were certainly well oiled on saturday night .
And a few useless facts after the week
The two highest peaks in praloup belong to Baps the girl who single handily runs the world championships , she's a bar woman , waitress ,tourist information receptionist ,commissar and much much more .
The French don't like it when the English set there arses on fire
Paul Ferdy shock-Er's favourite song is "I touch Myself "
Ian Mac is a dab hand with a scissors you should see him give a wet scream short back and sides .
And Sean Herlihy is a UN peace officer , although i think he secretly wanted to bang the culprits heads together .
To anyone who is about to have a pre mid life crises when you turn thirty next year or even if you already are on the scrap heap if you like a bit of fun and healthy competition on the bike this Event is a must .
Results
55+
6th Derek Cowan 4.39.12
50+
17th Peter Popham 4.06.85
40+
28th Stephen Davidson 3.23.26
31st Colin Finley 3.24.59
35+
40th Ian McIntyre 3.12.02
97th Paul Callan 3.58.74
30+
6th Glyn O'Brien 2.46.49
31st Michael Cowan 2.59.08
109th Fran Cairns 3.35.64
110th Sean Herilhy 3.36.09
Ladies 30+
2nd Maeve Baxter 3.46.27
8th Michele Macartney 4.38.34
