Arctic conditions in Wicklow only added to the buzz in Ballinastoe Woods, Co. Wicklow on Sunday 21st February 2010.  165 eager riders from under-8 to over-60 to take part in the first race of its kind in Ireland. The brainchild of EPICmtb’s Richie Byrne, the idea was to get people racing XC for their first time without firing them untested in to the XC NPS.
I’ve always felt that if you put a human on a bike, regardless of its wheel size or whether its tyres are slick or 2.5″ of knobbily rubber, they will want to race it against another human. I thought by running a race series just for Sports ( the entry level for adults racing) it would take the pressure off newcomers and relative newcomers. Its also fair to say that after 20 years involvement in MTB racing I know what people like! So I came up with a short lap without a desperate climb or unrideable descents. It had to be doable by everybody regardless of their ability. Then I split the senior category into two: Sports A for experienced riders and Sports B for complete beginners. We also had Women, Under-16/Under-14/12/10/8.

The Offroad Commission got on board with me as did a whole host of people from across the MTB Community, with senior riders from nearly all the local MTB clubs helping out, not to mention Irelands no 1 Mountainbiker and unbeaten EPIC Blast Winner Niall Davis of Biking.ie giving a hand with free pre-race coaching.

The first race went off on a short stretch of the finish area single track with the Under-8s in action. This was a fantastic race with all the parents and onlookers giving these pocket-rockets huge encouragement on their 3 laps.
EPIC’s Caoimhe May led from the start and handled the tricky little course superbly to win just ahead of EPICs Lewis ” Cruiser” Carr, the tidy little sprint to the finish between them had my heart in my mouth!! Rocking in to 3rd place with all the style of her old man MTB Guru Ken Farrar was Ms Pia Farrar..

* Under-8 1 Caoimhe May (2)
* Under-8 2 Lewis Carr (6)
* Under-8 3 Pia Farrer (4)

Next up was the Under-10 and Under-12s race
They were going to have 1 lap of half the big course. There was going to be some serious racing in here with the big guns down from Boyne MTB .
I thought I was going to get trampled as they all crossed the finish line one after the other !!

* Under-10 1 Jamie Grifferty (24) Boyne mtb
* Under-10 2 Nathan Carr (23) EPICmtb
* Under-10 3 Jack Mooney (26)Boyne mtb

In the Under-12s I think it was a BOYNE Domination

* Under-12 1 Conor Kavanagh (35)
* Under-12 2 Allesandro Martinis (36)
* Under-12 3 Kyle O’ Connor (31)

At 12.00 we set off the Sports B , the Under-14s ,Under-16s and the Women.
EPIC Club Chairman and one of Irelands leading Masters riders Alfie Wallace psyched everybody up on the start line with his breathing excercises.
And away they went for their 3 laps with a very determined Peter Popham from Flow Racing leading the charge.
Next up some serious looking teenage athletes in the Under-16s and Under-14s. Then the women were off.
EPIC’s Micky Dardis won the B Category with EPIC’s Kevin Lysaght in 2nd , there was fierce close race between these boys both of who helped design and build the course! Hot on their heels in 3rd place was Micheal Keddy.

In the Under-14 race another close savage battle went on over the 3 laps with MAD’s Conor Lavelle taking the win from Eoghan O’Reilly, with Ms Marlena Drozdziok tearing it up in to 3rd place Under 16s was like a Mini Elite race with XMTB Dominating , 1st in was Kyle McKewan, followed by the impossibly tall Stuart Ballentyne - I was like hobbit  beside him! in 3rd Claire Oakley nearly caught the 2 boys at the end. A special mention in the Under-14s has to go to Turbo Tarbo in his first XC race, i’m pretty sure I growled at him to get around the last lap !!

In closely contested Womens event , Jenny Kilbride from Outdoor Evolution stormed to victory, over EPIC’s Maeve O’Grady and taking 3rd in her first ever race Agata Tamulewicz from MAD.

Then we were all ready for the comeback kids and the latent savages in Sports A.
It was like the start of a World Cup XC race with all the jostling on the start line. Hot favourite Dangerous Damo Duggan of Flow Racing was being caged in by his rival downhillers Sean Herlihy, Bruce Murphy and Killian O’Donahoe of Green Fleece / EPIC Racing . DH God John Lawlor was in the mix there as well eyeing up the competition and rearing to go.
Alfie Wallace, Luke Smaul, Oisin Boydell and Oz MacAnanaey wound up the riders once again and away they went with Dave Kelly from EPIC leading the gallop up the fireroad and in to the first singletrack.
Wow..
Every lap saw a steady stream of riders fighting tooth and nail for every inch of trail over a rival. The spectators went mad for jumps in the Bombhole and were screaming at the finish.  Every time Max Staroniewicz from EPIC went through we played his theme song “Homer Simpson - The Max Power Song” you had to be there! It was priceless.

But the race of the year was between Dangerous Damo and Eyeball Lawlor, Damo was on his tail all the way to the finish and then as the pair exited the last couple of yards of singletrack, Jawlor switched on some sort on Nitro and he took off, taking 2nd and Damo came through in 3rd..
In 4th steady all the way was Paul Sullivan - a dark horse and hopefully a man we’ll see challenging the Sports NPS this year, 5th place went to EPIC’s Dave Steve Millist, with EPIC’s Simon Keating in 6th. Next up in 7th place Greg Kinsella, 8th went to Number 1 MTB Photo Journo EPIC’s Victor Tango Lucas. Hot on his Heels came EPICs Princess Shona D’Arcy in 9th , closing the top 10 was EPIC’s newest recruit Hughie Geraghty.

I would like to thank:

* Carol my wife for enduring the the non stop phonecalls and the mood swings when I’m fretting about an event
* Fergal Kilkenny for making sure this happened and everything else!
* Sean Herlihy for backing me on this one as usual!
* Coillte for the loan of the Forest
* Shayne Murphy SNAP Printing
* Dave O’Toole and Vasile Lung ( The Paramedics)
* Jer Jackson for getting us the car park in Ballinastoe Golf Club
* Mike Jordan in the Cycle Inn in Tallaght
* Niall Davis for being a great supporter of what we try to do.
* All the Senior riders from several clubs who assisted in every way possible,
* Sophie for being a super assistant!
* Stewart Carr for all the things he does to help us run brilliant events.
* Morgan O’Connell for being Morgan.
* Wheelworxbikes.com

Oh and of course all the riders who raced and took part. We run these events for you guys, the people we know and the new people, after all we’re really all just a bunch of big kids messing on bikes and having the craic,

Richie Byrne

EPICmtb

** Courtesy of Irishxcmtb.com**