Report of the action
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K-Capital Cup - Round 1 Report of the action |
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| K Capital Cup - Round 1 - Kilruddery Estate,
Co. Wicklow 9 March 2008 Thankfully the forecasted storms, hail and high winds did not materialise today for the first of the four rounds of the K-Capital Cup. The venue was Kilruddery estate located to the south of Dublin and the circuit was held on the side of a mountain and among some great sections of forest. It was cold but temperatures rose when the sun made an appearance. As expected this venue was well organised with road signs, "sign on" tent, timekeepers caravan, toilets and PA system pumping out upbeat music and commentary. Parking was on a large field close to the start, great for the large turn out of vehicles and, of course, riders. The categories were well filled up for this event, Elite Men (17), Elite Women (4), Experts (22), Masters (46), Vets (21), juniors (8) and 69 Sports riders. The start line was the bottom of a muddy climb up through to a field of thick grass. At the top of which the 'serious' category rider had an extra climb and then bumpy downhill section before returning to the fire road that the Sports riders went straight to . This fire road was on a slight decline allowing riders to use top gear to zip along it before turning left and up a long, long rocky lane . This was another test of strength and a great opportunity to pass weaker climbers. At the top it turned right and into some slippery single track. There was some excellent single track throughout this course, with a small bomb hole (quite slippery, slightly cambered and no run off !) to the legendary BIG bomb hole, which, for 'freshers' to this course, was a wide eyed, lump in the throat, full brakes on kind of drop. This bomb hole was much better, straight, bone dry and a great run off. A great feature to this event (well done Mother Nature!). After the big bomb hole there was a fast section of single track through the wood before appearing out the same gate you went into this section. Then you had a grassy section back to the fire road which took you back to the main field which held the start/finish lines. In a nasty add-on from the organisers there was an extra section of climbing in this main field up to a rocky outcrop, then down a single track before turning back up the field and through the start/finish line where you nicely heard your name read out by the commentator. That brought the riders back to the leg-sapping muddy climb and into the next lap. The lap was 7.5 km (4.6 miles). Dromara CC had two MTB riders at the event, Martin Grimley (Sports cat.) and Ross Galway, who just moved up to the Experts category for this race. The Sports category race had the biggest entry with almost 70 riders from across Ireland and beyond. The sports race started at 12:00 and was set to complete two laps of the main course. The first climb was a melee of riders jostling for position before the group stretched out along the fireroad and up the rocky lane. Martin finished 34th out of 66 finishers. The Experts race kicked off at 1:32 just after the Elite and junior men had set off. Ross started well from the middle of the other 21 riders, taking it steady to conserve energy for the duration of the race. Within quick succession of the start of the Experts race, the Masters (46 riders) and Vets (21 riders) races set off to do 3 laps of the big circuit. This did mean that there were over 100 riders spread across the circuit, which made it difficult for spectators to know who was ahead but did make for lots of entertainment as there was always some action to see no matter where you were watching the race from. Ross did well for the first two laps and then started suffering a series of cramps affecting lower and upper parts of both his legs. Well done Ross for competing in his first Experts race. Even though his body has yet to get accustomed to the extra lap, he stuck with it and finished the course coming in 14th. A full list of the results can be found on the K-Capital cup website. Many thanks to Team Worc for putting on a superb MTB event. And many thanks to the land owner for the use of the estate. Roll on round 2 at Moneyscalp on 23 March 2008 Some video footage Start of the Experts Race Start of the Masters and Vets Races Ross completing his first lap For further comment and discussion about this race see our message board Photos by Ross. Report and video by Martin |
Martin
Stephen Prentice (Banbridge) 
Team GB 
Ross (photo courtesy of IMBRC)
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