2 races back to back to kickstart my season was the plan but this quickly spiralled into a grand tour of Europe…
Top worker’s Lloydy lad and Scouse would be key members of team England and spirits were high as we loaded up the partybus and set sail for Ireland and the Wicklow mountains for the 1st round of the new Irish gravity enduro series. We had a job on our hands with 5 stages to learn in 1 day before the race and there really was a lot to learn. We only had time for 1 run of the final and best stage which was a deforested downhill track at the top, whooped out like a moto track quite fast then into some steep technical woods; we found some great lines but after just 1 run it was hard to remember everything. Some stages were quite physical and holding speed was important, we were lucky it was dry! And each stage featured an awkward section all of its own. Overall it was the test of a true mountainbiker, needless to say, we didn’t win… Going over the bars and ripping me seat off in the 1st stage wasn’t a great start… The race was held on easter weekend and the atmosphere was great, the easter bunny even showed up on a quad bike! The international field made for a great competition and I found some pace by the last stage scraping into the top 5! Thanks to Niall Davis and his team for putting on such a great event and Greg Callahan for showing us all round his amazing local trails at Threerock; the venue for the next round!Pos Name Category Total Time Stage1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5
1st Joe Barnes MPRO 00:20:15
MTBcut/Orange (SCO) MPRO 00:04:15 00:03:34 00:03:52 00:04:32 00:04:02
2nd Jerome Clementz MPRO 00:20:18
Team Cannondale (FR) MPRO 00:04:17 00:03:37 00:03:59 00:04:29 00:03:56
3rd Nicolas Lau MPRO 00:21:26
CUBE ACTION (FRA) MPRO 00:04:38 00:03:49 00:04:08 00:04:45 00:04:06
4th RobinSeymour MPRO 00:21:26
Expert Cycles (IRL) MPRO 00:04:28 00:03:50 00:04:06 00:04:41 00:04:21
5th Alex Stock MPRO 00:21:47
Kona (ENG) MPRO 00:04:47 00:03:53 00:04:13 00:04:49 00:04:05
Italian Superenduro Round 1, San Bartolomeo
Bellisimo Italy, I think I must be half Italian and it was great to be back with the Kona Bike ‘o’ clock team, they have a big shop in Genova and we were the strongest team in Superenduro in 2011.
All the brits were pretty happy because it was wet initially and the tracks were quite technical with little emphasis on pedalling. 1 track was a full on Welsh import and Englishman Paul Aston actually took the win on this stage with flat pedals and coil shocks!! The sun came out for the race so it turned out to be dry (normally weekend weather goes the other way). I was still waiting for my 2012 bike which was stuck in customs but ‘Bike o clock’ did a great job with my winter bike and we finished 6th conceding 5th place to my good pal Paul Aston. Paul actually won Seniors and it was great to be up there on the podium with him in 2nd place… NAAWWWWTTT! My team mate Karim Amour finished in 4th with family man and super hard worker Andrea Bruno coming in 3rd, Alex Lupato 2nd and Davide Sottorcornola took the win.
In part 2; Podiums, new bikes, sun, snow, blue sky’s, sunburn, massive over the bar crashes, movies, 1st ever cliff jump and a travel itinerary pushed to the limit.
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