Season Begins! Two excellent races so far

So, I came back from Bordeaux slightly worried about my skills on the mountain bike. I felt strong and light, but found it difficult to get down the mountain trails quick!! That is that 3-4 weeks on a road bike does to you!! So, I quickly decided to concentrate on my technical downhill/uphill skills after getting back!

Now, I am back on track and doing well in the Mountain bike races with confidence and speed.

Also, The new bike arrived recently, which is absolutely incredible! Its a Trek 9.9ssl with internal gear cables and all the go faster parts!

Race 1 ) Belfast - McConvey Cycles Round-  2nd Place   (1minute30 of winnner Matt Adair)

This was a tester for me, I was not fit race wise but was ready to test myself.  My plan was to get a good start next to Matt Adair and see how I went from there. This went nicely but the stronger man on the day won!











Race 2) Leinster League Round 1 - 1st Pace

I love this track, I won it last year and was happy to win it again. Its an old school race track, One pure uphill fireroad climb with a long flowy technical downhill. The trails rode perfect even with the mud and slippery parts.! Some of my new 'tools' provided by sponsors really shone brightly today. The Kenda Karma's 1.95  literally kept me upright for the entire race, with only two minor dabs!! And the Ashima AirRotors provided incredible stopping power in the mud!

My aim for the race was to chill out with the pack on the climb in around 3-5th position.  I knew Joe McCall would be good on the techincal sections, So at the top of the climb we both made a break from the pack to get to the flowy descents! I was 100% concentrated but having serious fun!

After the first descent, I decided to test myself and ride away from Joe and the pack, This went smoothly, and I ended up with a comfortable gap until the end of the race.

Adios!

Actionsports.de

HOT wheels!  Great Choice/Great Price/Delivery from Actionsports.

(http://www.actionsports.de/gb/Wheels/Wheelset-Specials:::3_10.html)


So, I used the S-light Podium wheels last year! excellent sturdy wheels considering the paltry weight (1250gr) I did encounter many problems with the 'old type' hubs that they used. But within a week of sending the wheels back, Actionsports had them delivered back to me with the far better designed hub system free of charge. The new hub solves the common freehub problems and seal problems F+R.

The new Kenda  Karma tires popped on with no problems and sealed straight away tubeless style.
So far i'm extremely happy with this set up, and would recommend them to any keen racer out there!

More pics from Bordeaux!

French Cuisine lesson - anyone ever tired Raclette!? This has got to be the most unhealthy dinner in the world. Its nice in a seriously gross way! Its real mountain food for mountain men!

It involves a cheese melting machine the size of a coffee table and countless amounts of melted cheese dripped over whole potatoes with fried ham on top! Its lovely and fun to make!! but there's some serious eating with the Raclette's! I had loads of energy the next day for biking, that's for sure..

So the masks (Kind of weird, yes)- Amy left her primary school teaching kit on the table so we decided to use the facemasks for the hell of it while eating! made some pretty bizarre photo's!

I went for the creepy monkey mask!

New Sponsors - Limar, Lake, and Kenda!


I'm delighted and proud to say that Ill be recieving great support from these three brands for the 2011 racing year! I can't wait to try out the products when they arrive in Dublin at the end of the week!

A big thank you to Lauren Vanderplank at Todayscyclist (http://www.todayscyclist.co.uk/)

Here's a taster of what Ill be racing with,  Lake make their top end shoes out of Kangaroo leather!! How cool is that!