Last weekend I headed down to Wicklow for what has become an annual pilgrimage for most of the mountain bike community in Ireland; The Epic Blast.The “Blast” is the brain child of Richie Byrne of Epic MTB, with the general idea being that it is not a Downhill race, nor an XC race, but a little bit of both… with the added excitement of some 4X style battling with other riders down the hill.

The venue for the event was once again, Ballinastoe Wood. Ballinastoe has an excellent Coillte built way marked network of sustainable trails, but for the “Blast” only a small portion of those trails are built. As the creator himself says, the course for the race is always designed to be super hard, booby trapped with jumps and lips and other surprises, and wide enough to do Battle with everyone around you. This year’s course started on top of the mountain as usual, giving riders a multitude of lines down off the moor before entering the forest. The weeks rain prior to the event left the top part of the course very muddy before exiting with a cruel steep climb up to a long fireroad descent over a series of jumps, a very muddy bus stop section and some excellent singletrack further down the hill.

This year saw the event changing format somewhat to a 2 day event instead of the regular 1 day show. Red Bull were involved and Gee Atherton (2010 DH World Champion and World Cup winner) and his Brother Dan were in attendance to spice things up. The Saturday saw riders starting 30 seconds apart and doing a solo timed run of the course. My own run was pretty poor to say the least. I was the 81st rider away and already the course was very heavy going. A poor selection of tire and a poor display of skills meant I was already way behind with only 1/3 of the course done. I managed to pull a few riders in who set off in front of me before the end and avoided being passed by anyone, but a time of 15 minutes was only good enough for 60th place out of 134 riders. Luke Ireland posted a fast time of just over 13 minutes and placed much higher up. Fastest time on the day was Dan Atherton in just over 10 minutes.

Day two saw about another 250 riders show up for the main event. A Heat with the 10 riders who signed on at the same time (ie – 0-9; 10-19; 20-29 etc etc). Again I had a very poor heat. Leading off the moor I was then 3rd by the time we got to the forest, and 8th when exiting the first section! My front wheel then locked up such was the build up of mud between the tire and fork brace! At least I beat my brother. I ended up 6th in this run.

The next run was against all the people who finished in the same position as you in their respective heats. So off I went with 22 other losers who all finished 6th in their run. New tactics employed including a new straight line run down the mountain hoping there were no holes or ditches to bury the front wheel into and running like a lunatic while everyone else tried to ride through the first swamp. It worked, almost. 5th place and managed to beat some old foes.

The last run of the day was the mass start Epic Blast. Almost 400 riders lined across the mountain, all heading for one hole in the trees just about big enough for a mini cooper to fit through. Utter Carnage! I somehow managed to make it to the bottom in one piece and avoid riding over any fallen riders in front of me. A complete miracle!

As far as results go, Irish XC Legend Robin Seymour took the win, showing that as athletic as DH and 4X riders are, they are no match for our own champion. Gareth McKee from Banbridge CC finished a superb 4th place despite dropping his chain towards the end of the run. David Montgomery also from Banbridge CC finished a very credible 31st place.

Many thanks to Epic MTB for an absolutely superb event.

Report by Barry Kellett