Mountain biking is...

... exciting! ( photo: Paul Byrne)

... fast! (photo: SSWC 2011)

... fun!

... the best way to get to nice places!

... good way to get tired!

... "good for your skin" :) !

... very muddy sometimes!

... rewarding!

Leadmines // Threerock - Timed lap on the Epic course

This morning the weather got a bit better compare to the terrible conditions over the last couple of days, so needless to say how happy I was to get out on the bike without the risk of hailstones. :)

Today's spin - Leadmines & Threerock

My plan was to get out to the Leadmines and see what I can do on the Epic club course. I haven't been there for a good while now and I was prepared to get some proper slippery time around the well known club course. So after the fast tarmac climb I was feeling good and excited about the whole plan. "This is gonna be great!" I thought when I started my timed lap on the muddy trails. I gave everything I had I guess and when I got the lap done with my personal best of 14 minutes and 35 seconds I was feeling sooo good about myself...until I got back home and uploaded the data to Strava. My lap time was enough to be the 24th best registered time on the club course. Not bad, but I honestly thought I was going a bit faster than that. :) 

After I finished at the Leadmines I turned back towards Threerock and did a little bit of mountain biking there too. I finished just in time before the usual Saturday madness kicked in! Happy days! :) 

On my way home

In the last couple of weeks I've been quiet busy to get ready for the arrival of our Little Baby (painting the room, putting baby furnitures together and going to antenatal classes), so I've been doing spins only once a week. Funny enough, since I spend less time up in the mountains I appreciate my time on the bike lot more. Everytime I get out it feels like just the perfect spin and it wasn't any different this time either. 

I had great time on the bike, I did 2 hours and 20 minutes and covered the distance of 44 km this morning. It was fun ride on the super muddy trails. Conclusion of today's spin: next time I need to calm down after a timed lap 'cause it's not always as good as it seems! :)

It's time to refresh my blog's design!

It's been nearly one and a half year since I write about my bike related adventures and since I've started my blog the design hasn't been changed. I wanted to refresh things here on this page for a while now but I just never got around things to do it. Up until now! 

The page has been refreshed a little bit with this new look and I hope everybody who reads the blog likes the change! :)

WW // Tibradden - Nice & relaxed mountain bike spin

Another Saturday means another XC spin, so we wasted no time: got on our bikes and turned up towards the Dublin muntains to have fun on the bike on this great, sunny morning. This time I went out with my friend Csaba and since we haven't been out on the bike together for like a million years we decided to have a cool and chilled out spin with lots of talk and a very civilized pace. :)

The plan was to show him the new trails that I started to use lately and the fastest way to get there was to climb up to Threerock and from there we hit the super rocky and technical Wicklow Way to reach our destination.

Rocks after rocks, puddles after puddles...it was so much fun to ride on that upper, flat sector of the Wicklow Way and rise to the challenge to manage a good pace without loosing control of the bike on the aggressive surface. It was cool! :)

That's not smooth indeed :)

After the short sector of the Wicklow Way we turned right and started to roll along of the trails of Tibradden. The real fun started when we got on the Legend trail which was extremely muddy this time...I mean the whole place was super slippery! The best part was the switch in between the opened parts of the trail (they were real challenging 'cause of the mud) and the forest sectors (they were extremely quick and dry enough). To go from easy and fast to difficult and slowish, and to repeat this soooo many times was pretty cool! :) 

At some points it was a real challenge even just to stay upright on the bike. The most sketchy bit was the right turn after the big, flat rock that lies in that left turn drop. It was savage to ride that thing in that mud! :) 

The biggest & deepest puddle that I've encountered for a long time!!! :)

We had good fun while we tried to ride accross that thing but it was soo deep and the bottom of it was full of rocks and branches it was impossible to ride through in the middle. The water was as deep as the axles and the BB! The only way to get through was to pick a nice line on the right hand side. Here is a short video of the crossing: 

After we finished messing around the muddy trails we got back on the road and started to head back home. By the time I got back to my place I got 30 km in under a little longer than 2 hours.

Here is our route this morning

Havin' such an easy and fun filled mountain bike spin on a bright and sunny Saturday morning is just great. I loved to be out on the bike and mess around in the mud! It was short, it wasn't fast or difficult spin but hey! It was brilliant and for today it was more than perfectly enough! :)

Singletrack to the nowhere...

I think fog is an amazing thing in the nature, there is always something mysterious about it. I like to ride my bike in pretty much every weather condition but fog is definitely one of my favourite one of all! It is a bit different opinion I know, but I can't help it: I just simply love mountain biking in thick fog! :)

Here I have some nice photos from Threerock, they really show what's the mountain like at 7 am in a cold and damp morning! :)

Threerock // WW // Massey's Woods - What a spin!

I got out on the bike for the first time this week, so I wanted to have the most of it! I got up nice and early, got my good breakfast and I was on my way up to the still cold but sunny mountains. The weather was decent but to be fair pretty cold though. Especially up on the opened mountain tops! 

Theerock, just before I met Joe & Mark

I picked my favourite place so after a quick warmup I was rocking on the trails of Threerock. I got up from the Kilmashogue carpark's direction. After the steady fire road climb I hit some of the sweet natural trails on the far side of the mountain where I met Joe McCall and Mark Kenny and I teamed up with them to get an even better spin on this great Saturday morning!

After a little more mountain biking on the familiar trails of Threerock we started to head up towards the top of the mountain on the Wicklow Way and after a quick downhill we got on this great single track called "Legend". 

This one was new to me, I never been on it before. But I will surely remember 'cause I definitely want to do it again 'cause it was a super forest trail. Quick forest trail with some sweet technical roots & rock sectors. The mud made it even better, I had so much fun to ride on it! Great stuff! :)

After this new part we got to the Massey's Woods where we hit some real high pace on the super fast downhill trails. Thankfully the place was pretty much empty so we could let the bikes go nice and quick! :) 

Once we finished our spin I started to head back home and by the time I got back to my place I got 43,5 km done under 2 hours and 54 minutes with a little bit more than 1000 m elevation gain along the way. I really appreciated the time on the bike, it was absolutely superb spin. 

It was even better 'cause I could join the guys, it was a proper XC spin with no messing around: nice pace, proper technical natural trails and good company! What else would I need to have a savage Saturday morning XC spin?! :)

Happy Easter everyone!

I'd like to wish Happy Easter to everyone with this photo that I just got sent over from my family home: this is an Easter Egg that was painted by my wife Anett about 8 years ago. She paid attention for all the details and she painted one of my old bikes on this egg. It was defo the best Easter Egg I ever got and the best thing is: it is still not broken!

There is everything: my bike, mountains, a tree and grass...just the perfect mountain biker Easter Egg, hah?! :)

Kilmashogue climb x 9 times in a row // 2012 goal is done!

I just got back home not long ago from the Kilmashogue Lane where I got one of my special projects done. The plan was there for a while and I had the details worked out as well long ago but the real inspiration was the last year's National Hillclimb Championship. So why not to try and see my climbing limits, hah?

Luckily I picked a nice and bright day for attempt but after all the bad weather just a couple of days ago (snow, hailstones and the rest...) I was honestly worried about the sudden change of weather. I decided to drive out instead of ride my bike there 'cause I needed everything (drink & food, dry clothing) easly accessable. So, after a quick prep I was ready to go!

All ready to go

Let's get the ball rollin'! :)

The plan was to ride nicely and set a constant pace during the climb. So, after I settled into a comfortable pace I started to get the climb done one after another. The first 4 times it was absolutely ok, didn't have any problems at all. But during the 5th, 6th, and 7th time I started to feel pain and tiredness from different parts of my body (lower back, shoulders, arms, legs). By the time I got up to the top the 8th time, it was pretty much obvious to me: I can get it done one more time, but that's about it. So I went for it one more time and after that my body and my head gave it up pretty much in the same time. My lower back was possibly the most critical but I was sore everywhere else too...

The faithful Madone 4.5

But hey, it's done! I completed the Kilmashogue Lane tarmac road climb (between the M50 bridge and the top of the tarmac road) 9 times in a row. Happy days! :)

Map & elevation graph

Details of today's challenge:

Lenght of each climb: 2.58 km

Number of climbs: 9

Total distance: 46.59 km

Total time: 2 hours 42 minutes

Total elevation gain: 2079 m 

Avarage speed: 17,2 km/h

Calories burned: 2033 cal

So, the special goal that I've set for myself for 2012 is done and dusted! I'm very tired and sore but in the main time I'm happy to know I've done what was planned. So, the number to beat is 9 on this brutal climb, next time I'll try to push out the limits a bit more and get a double digit number written on that flat stone. When that next time would be? Don't even ask me! It wont be any time soon, that's for sure!!! :)

Big thank you to John Clarke from ThinkBike for the set of wheels for the day!

Biking Blitz Round 4 // Threerock - race report

Wow, what a day I had! I'm still buzzing after today's Biking Blitz Round 4 up on Threerock. This XC race was my first race of the 2012 season, so needless to say how excited I was about the whole thing. There was a cool detail as well: the fact the race venue is about 10 minutes drive from my home made the race preparation sooo easy. Woke up, packed my gear and got there in no time! Brilliant! :)

The view from my balcony at about 9 am this morning! Good start, isn't it?!  :)

So, after the extremely short journey I arrived to the Ticknock lower carpark and set up my base for the day. After I picked up my race number (that was super smooth thanks to the pre-registration) then I started to get ready. Just the last check on everything and after that I was on my way towards the upper carpark where the start / finish area has been set up. Now, I have to say it was good to see such a nice effort from the organizers to get a welcoming start / finish area that caters for eveybody. Well designed run of the course, good music, repair tent, bouncy castle for the kids and lot more. It would be cool to see this more often in the future! :)

Just a quick shot while I was chillin' out in the car

At the start line, all good to go (photo by Shay Barry)

5..4..3..2..1..START!!!

Off we went at 1 o'clock sharp and started our 4 laps on the 7.5 km long loop that was the distance for the Super Pro category. I was happy 'cause I managed to start from the third row, so I was nicely up on the front right from the start. Since the first climb was a pretty intense and at some places steep enough tarmac road I managed to stick with the leader group of about 10 riders and we opened up a nice and big gap by the time we got up to the top of the road. But I had to quickly realize that if  I keep forcing this pace for too long I could get into trouble soon, so I dropped back and started to settle into my own zone.

Rolling on the bone dry Metro trail (photo by Shay Barry)

In action (photo by Shay Barry)

I completed lap after lap on the dusty dry single tracks and fire road / tarmac climbs. The descents were really fast and so much fun. I honestly don't remember such dry conditions for long time, finally there was dust on the bike and on my legs instead of the usual creamy mud! :)

Dust, dust, dust! Lovely! :)

Every time I passed by the start / finish area the loud music and all the cheering from the spectators gave me such a big boost,  I couldn't believe the buzz up on the side of the mountain. It was just simply fantastic! :)

After the race: happy days, everything went well! :)

After 1 hour and 44 minutes I completed the 4 laps and crossed the finish line. The total distance of the race was 29.9 km and the total elevation gain was 802 m (check out Strava for more detailed info on my race data).

       I also have my lap times here:   Lap 1 - 24:18
                                                        Lap 2 - 26:10
                                                        Lap 3 - 26:50
                                                        Lap 4 - 26:55

Big thanks to Niall Davis & the Biking.ie crew for the great event! I would be delighted to see more XC events like this in the future! Everything was just simply great, I think it's needless to say more!

I had a great race day indeed and I'm very happy with my performance. I finished 17th today in a pretty strong field. I felt very good on the bike and I gave 100% during the race. Although it felt like 110% for the first climb when I went ahead with the leader group! Especially in a field with Peter Buggle, Richie Felle, Sebastian Roman Rakos and some very strong Elite category lads as well. Hard work it was to try to keep up with them but well worth the experience! Cool!  :)