Irish NPS round 4

For round 4 a different track was being used to that which was used in round 1. As the weather had been good all week they opted for a faster, more jump filled track, which I thought was really fun. I set off from Belfast to get the train down to Dublin with my bike and all my gear, I was meeting my friend and fellow racer Adam Tarbett who kindly helps me to get to a lot of the races along with his Dad. I arrived at his house on Friday night and we did a quick bolt check to make sure the bikes were all ready for the weekend ahead. We soon went to bed to get a good night sleep for the early start we had. Woke up at 6 and we were out of the house for around 7. It was only a 2 hour drive from Dublin so all was god. We got to the track around 9 and went for track walk. One section I thought was really fun about the course was the Moto style whoops after the big road gap. I went down and changed my tyres as I still had my spikes on from the weekend before.

Practice started at 10 and I was letting young gun Jacob Dickson do a few runs behind me as I know how much this helps when you get to follow a faster rider, It was also good seeing him hit all the big gaps as he is only 12!! At the end of the day I tried to do a few timed runs but kept catching people on the course so I didn't get any accurate times.

I got a good night sleep in a local's house and was ready to go come Sunday morning. I went up and had 2 quick runs before practice ended and then just chilled out watching the Under 16 riders come down while eating some food before my runs. I went up at was sitting ready to go. My 1^st race run was average; I hit some sections really well but messed up on others and lost a good bit of time coming out of a berm. I came down and was sitting in 3^rd 0.3 seconds behind 2^nd place. Gavin Carroll the point's leader is really on form and set an unreal time and it was about 8 seconds quicker than the rest of the field! I knew I had to do something special if I was to even come close to come close to his time. I went up for my 2^nd run and gave it everything I could, I hit nearly every section the best I had hit it all weekend. I came down and smoked my 1^st run time by 5 seconds slotting me into 2^nd place again. I was very happy with this considering that I am still riding against bigger and older riders.

Link to Results.

http://www.irishdh.com/index.php/information-on-race-previews-reviews-and-results/16-race-results/220-2010-irish-dh-nps-round-4-results

Link to Overall after 4 Rounds

http://www.irishdh.com/index.php/information-on-race-previews-reviews-and-results/16-race-results/221-2010-irish-nps-league-tables-following-round-4

Thanks to all my sponsors for supporting me throughout the year.

Ch

Irish NPS round 3

This race weekend started off with another long drive down to the race venue. We left at about 1 for the long 7 hour drive down to the track, we arrived around half 8 and it was still bright enough to walk the track.

The Track was quite steep and wet so I knew I would have to be changing to spikes. After the track walk we went to the camping spot to set up base getting the gazebo and the Novatec banner up. We soon got everything organized and went to bed around 10. The nest day started well, we just signed on and did a few runs and even though the track was wet and muddy but it was really good fun. Unfortunately it started to rain pretty bad and the track turned into a mud fest and was just like a slip and slide the whole way down. I tried to salvage as much practice as I could. Once we finished for the day we put the bikes on the back of the pick up and took them to the garage to get washed.

Come race day I was feeling in a really good mood. Was just having fun riding my bike and didn't really mind that it was wet and muddy; I actually thought it made the track more interesting.
Unfortunately I had a very bad 1^st race run and fell of 3 times on the track, even with this bad luck I came down and was sitting in 5^th. I knew if I had a clean run I would improve quite a lot. It came to the 2^nd race run and I was just focused on having a clean run and that I did. I came down and was sittig in 1^st place waiting for a few riders to come down. Unfortunately my main competitor Gavin Carroll also came down and had an amazing run and knocked me off the top spot. My run put me in 2^nd in the junior category and 11^th overall which I was pleased with as the CRC Intense WC team was racing.

Thanks to all my sponsors for supporting me throughout the year.

Christopher McGlinchey

Dirt Magazine

John Lawlor got in touch with myself and a few other Irish riders to try and organise a segment in an issue of Dirt Magazine. We all went along to 3-rock in Dublin where we all had a really good time just riding our bikes and getting photos taken in the process.

There is also a video filmed and edited by John Lawlor,

http://dirt.mpora.com/news/john-lawlor-irish-young-guns.html

Big thanks to John who organised everything, and Victor Lucas for taking some sick shots.

Irish NPS round 2

The weekend started straight after school when I rushed home to get changed and get a few final things ready. I made my way across to my friend Godfrey’s work. We soon left Belfast at about 6 and made the huge journey down to Killarney which lasted 8 hours including a few stops ect. We arrived at 2a.m. on Saturday morning and had to set up our camp for the weekend at the track which didn’t take long. It was a fairly cold night so getting to sleep took some time. I woke up with frost on the inside of my tent and got worried that it would have been icy. But a quick nip outside the tent showed that it wasn’t. The weather was looking amazing with clear blue skies and no wind it was perfect conditions. I went to walk the track and it was far better than in previous years. There were a few key features such as long off cambers and steep rock slabs. It was a short but physical track as you were on the gas the whole way down. Practice started very well and I was just doing runs with Godfrey all morning. I got 3 runs in before stopping to refuel and then a further 4 runs after lunch. I was feeling very fast on the track and was really enjoying the good weather.

Sunday night was a lot warmer and I got a great night’s sleep. I woke up at about half 8 and got ready and down to the uplift after giving my bike the once over. I did two quick runs at race pace so I know how I would be strength wise during my race runs. I then went and got some lunch and watched the u/14 and u/16s in their 1^st race run cheering them on. One rider I was glad to see pinning it was 13 year old Ben Kennedy who took the win in u/14s, he also would have placed 3^rd in the u/16 cat. He is a good friend of mine and its good to see him riding so fast. Now it was time for me to head up for my run. There was a short delay at the top of the forest with timing so we were waiting around. 1^st run was fairly good, I was hitting most of my lines and only really messed up on one section near the bottom of the track where I dropped a foot around a corner which cost me a bit of time, apart from that I had a clean run and was sitting in 3^rd place. I knew I had to give it everything in my 2nd^t run and that’s what I did. Straight from the start gate and just sprinted the whole run. I hit all of my lines and was very happy with my race run. This put me in 2^nd place improving about 3 seconds on my 1^st run. Beating NPS round 1 winner Gavin Carroll who finished in 3^rd place was a key thing I had to do as he is my main competition for the overall title race.

NPS Round 1 Race report

The 1^ST round of the Irish NPS was held by 021 Racing in Scarragh Woods in county Tipperary. I headed down to my good friend Adams house on the Thursday who was also racing. We had 2 days to kill before we headed down to the race. So we decided to go out on the bmxes and just have a bit of fun on the Thursday evening. Come Friday it poured down all day so we were house bound. We decided it would be a good time to give our bikes the final once over before the race. We had an early night so we could get up bright and early for the weekend. Drove down on Saturday morning and arrived at the track at about 9am we walked the track and were ready to head off for our 1^st practise run at ten. Saturday was going well until the end of the day when I had a big crash and smashed my elbow into a rock this made my elbow swell up big time. Got all packed up and headed off to a garage in town to clean the bikes, We then checked into the B and B we were staying in and had dinner

Pictures from Saturday Practice

Woke up early on Sunday morning and had a nice breakfast and was ready to go despite my elbow still being very sore. I managed to get 2 practise runs in before the finals. These kicked off at 12 and i watched a few of the u14 and u16 riders come down before i got ready to go to the top. Looked over a few lines at the top and then started to warm up. First run went ok, had a few sketchy moment on some roots but managed to stay on, I set a time of 2.30.876 which put me in 3^rd place only 2 second off the leader Gavin Carroll. My 2^nd run went far better but the course was running slower as there were huge ruts forming despite the track conditions i managed to post a 2.29.6 which bumped me up to 2^nd place in the junior category. I was happy to secure some good points with my injured elbow. Next up is the 1^st round of the British NPS in Wales next weekend.

Thanks again to all my sponsors that are supporting me this year.

Novatec, Southern Extreme, MSC Bikes, Gamut, Green Oil, Bike Tart

Novatec Wheels

For 2010 I have hooked up with a company that specialize in making wheels for all disciplines of cycling. They are supporting me throughout the season. I am currently running their Demon wheel set.

I am very impressed with these wheels. They roll so fast and look and feel amazing. I have been riding these for about 2 months now and the spokes are still as tight as when they were brand new and are in perfect true. They are also a very light wheel set.

Thanks to Milan over at Novatec for helping me out this year

www.novatec.com.tw