Race Report: Vitus First Tracks Enduro Cup, Round 1 Castlewellan

Last year Jim and his riding buddies made the trip over to Ireland for a week-long tour, ending in the race held up in Northern Ireland by the First Tracks guys, where Jim took the number one Vets spot in a big field of riders. This time Jim and his mate Sonny took to the high seas for the short ferry journey over for more of the same. The only difference being that Jim was this time was testing the all-new carbon Vitus Sommet CRX bike during the race.

The previous year’s race had been dry and fast going after a week of rain, making for some fast and steep stuff throughout several of the stages, situated amongst the grounds of the beautiful Castle of Castlewellan. This year it was the opposite, all week had seen dry dusty and loamy conditions, but the weather was to break for Saturday’s practice and Sunday’s racing. We stayed in the local area, literally minutes from the track, we were soon over at the event and setting up for the weekend’s proceedings early on Saturday. Glynn O’Brian and the rest of the First Tracks crew were flat out, professional as ever, setting up ready for the weekend, as we met up with Simon from Vitus, who handed over my race weekend whip for it’s first official outing. I soon had it endurofied to my specs ready for racing and we were off practicing the stages.

I have only just started riding with Sonny and he rips it up, riding like a man possessed, so my day consisted of trying to stay in his wake down the trails; easier said than done! There were to be six stages, all raced on Sunday, with practice allowed all day Saturday; a nice simple format. The transitions were all pretty easy and short really, mostly ridable, but a couple sporting the odd hike’a’bike areas to reach the summits more efficiently. Stage 1 the previous year had the steepest and gnarliest first quarter, but with the trails now being wet and slick, Glynn unfortunately had to take the decision to cut that first scary bit out; this now stage 1 the shortest stage.

All stages consisted of a mixture of natural rooty loam and rocks, broken up by sections of stone bike-park type terrain. Some stages had more bike park than others, some more pedally than others, but the peddling compared to DH was a bit high in the favour of the fit riders for our liking, Sonny and I knew we were going to have to dig deep as the trail centre stuff and odd uphill natural section took a hell of a lot out of the legs; we realised the weapon of choice for such a race would have been a lightweight short-travel slack 29er!

We cracked on through the stages, great banter being had with the ever-friendly locals and Sonny ending up eating dirt a few more times than he would have wanted! The loop was around a nice rider-friendly 20k, but we rode stages 2 and 4 twice getting a few more k’s under our belts before the rain set in and started to make the natural stuff a lot more interesting! By the time we were getting finished up, other riders had dissapeared and the trails were deserted, we made our way back seeing only the friendly faces of local walkers, runners and families, all fully wrapped up in water proofs. The rain had set in and showed no signs of abating, the forecast had it predicted for Sunday, so the with us both running the same tyre set-up of Maxxis Shorty front and Minion rear, there was no changing to do there. Bikes cleaned and race prepped, we headed back to the town for a massive feast and an early night, ready for Sunday’s pedal-fest!

The morning saw a full carpark at the outdoor centre, with riders all showing, not a care for the predicted rain, The Irish are a happy friendly lot, never put off by a bit of wet and spirits seemed high as we all got sorted with the timing chips. We re-set our Enduro Mag EZ-up, as it had been rescued the night before from a windy slide across the car park. Riders were queueing to get off at there designated start times, ours being a bit later, nearer to 11am. The helmet rule was half or full face, we had opted for half in practice and full for racing, figuring we would be putting the gas down a bit harder on the Sunday and queueing for stages could get a tad chilly in the rain.

With Sonny getting away from me on the big slack Nukeproof 29er on Saturday I was sure he was going to smoke me on the Sunday, but as he came down through the stages of racing and reported issues of crashing on the first three stages I knew it was game on between us. I was getting used to the nimble light weight Vitus (review to follow) as the day went on, but it’s always difficult to jump on a new alien bike, try and race it from the get-go and do well; that’s the slight down-side to being a bike tester (first world problems hey!) Sonny and I were enjoying ourselves, even with Sonny’s crashes and me feeling like I was just riding too steady, but we both felt real tired, neither of us too hot on the pedals when things get a bit more energy sapping. I had gone down in the 4th stage and lost time, then stage 5 just seemed to take all my energy away out on the trail centre section, leaving me riding seat-up regretting every doughnut I had ever eaten!

We were soon finished, I thought it would be real close between us, as I forced Sonny to hand his timing chip in before me; we must have podium-ed, surely? In the end Sonny took 8th spot and (like in so many races I have done) I was Freddy fourth! So close but so far, oh well, like I said, we aint pedalars! The event had been great however, run to perfection, just like the year previous and all competitors looked to be having fun, not dampened by the shitty weather whatsoever. After riders had come in they were treated to some beer to go along with their goody bag they received on arrival and their cool looking number boards; Glyn and the crew sure know how to run a proper event!

As for the movers and shakers, there sure were some quick riders out there, especially with Glyn’s Vitus First Tracks team and some representatives of Chain Reaction on site; some very impressive times were put in. Leaders were. Hardtail – Ian Bailey (Ragley Bikes/Rock & Ride Outdoors) Junior – Jack Devlin (Vitus Bikes) Masters B – Glyn O’Brian (Vitus First Tracks Race Devision) Masters A – Luke Ireland (Belfast Bike Repair Co) Women – Rose Griffin, Sport Vets – Wesley Henderson (Phoenix CC) Vets – Michael Cowan (Chain Reaction Cyles/Nukeproof) Sport Junior – Nathan Dickey, Super Vets – John Glove (Plush MTB) Seniors – Jordan Scott, Pros – 3rd Killian Callaghan (Vitus Factory Racing) 2nd Colin Ross 1st Kelan Grant (Nukeproof Factory Racing)

Full Results-here

Words | Jim Buchanan Photos | Dermott Sweeney

Website:http://firsttracksmtb.com