A travelling contingent of five 795-ers, with one supporter, lined out in Djouce today for the Djouce “not a race” Trail Challenge organised by Team WORC.
The sun was shining, you could almost hear the trails drying out. It was going to be great. And it was!
Paddy Furlong added to his growing collection of silverware with 2nd place in the under 12 race. The underage course took in some pretty serious switchbacking singletrack, including the famous Ecstacy. He was presented with his medal by Robin Seymour, Ireland’s XC Olympian. Great stuff Paddy. Make sure your auld fella gets you a jersey for the next day!
The elder lemons had a mixed day. Yours truly got swept up in the frenzy at the start and was quickly fooled into believing it was a race. Judging by their sedate pace, the other 795-ers were under no such illusion.
Oddly, despite my commanding lead, D Furlong was first home. Turns out he was led astray by a herd of poor sign-readers. Others less charitable than I would call this a short cut, but it appears to have been a genuine mistake.
Later, much later, James was gravely insulted when he was invited to take the easy route home because the organisers wanted to take the marking tape down. Should we seek redress for this affront. Perhaps a duel of some sort? Perhaps not. James wasn’t too worried anyway as he broke out the Irish(?) stew and vino.
The course was nothing short of superb, hats off to WORC. Our own recent trailbuilding efforts really paid off as we put into practice skills honed on Rock’n’Roll and Courtown. Some savage climbs too. We need to work on climbing, but where’s the fun in that?
All told this was a good day for the club which has really whetted appetites for a summer of racing in all disciplines.
Video and Results from mtbireland.com
Filed under: MTB Race Reports |
Racing 795 
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