2013 So Far

It's been a while! With trying to train, race and go to school, along with other extravagances like sleeping and eating, there really hasn't been much time to sit down and write, and I apologise for that!

2013's racing season, with my new team for this year, XMTB McConvey Cycles Dev. Squad, began with the first round of the Ulster XC Series, at Ballykelly forest. I could write you a book of highs and lows from between then to now, and it'd probably be class; but we'd be here all week, so I'll keep it brief and picturey. There could well be a bit of craic lacking, but fret not, now that school's out, I'll have some time to get decent post-race reports done, and I'm sure there'll be plenty of disasters to keep you amused.

UXC 1 - Ballykelly Forest - 1st Junior

I genuinely had no idea how this was going to go. First race of the season, first race on the new 29'er bike, and first race with the new team set-up. Thankfully after all the changes, the result stayed the same - where I finished off last year - and I got the biggest box to stand on at the end of the day. The course was absolutely awesome, flat out everywhere. After starting a minute behind S1/Elite, I'd passed Roger Aiken and all the other S1's he'd left in his wake by halfway through my last lap, so I backed off a bit and rode it steady to the line, thinking that was all the S1's behind me. Turned out fellow XMTB'er Matt Adair was riding an absolute stormer and was in fact infront of Roger, so I only got caught up to 2nd S1 in the end. Fair play!

Ciclisport GP - East Tyrone - Top 10 somewhere

Check out how clean we are

Check out how clean we aren't

After being plagued with knee problems for the last two years, things finally came good and I was able to road race again. Previously, my knee would just blow up after about 90mins riding, so I could last for the 60mins'ish of a MTB race, but couldn't do any road racing, which was kind of crap to say the least! So after my last, and first open race being two years ago; at U16 level, I was going into this one pretty blind. I came out of it pretty blind too, as you can see, the weather was a bit of a disaster. My eyes are useless at the best of times, and I've only one pair of prescription sunnies and they're really, really dark, so I dumped them off early in the race and spent the next couple of hours squinting through Moneymore's finest road spray. After getting in a couple of breaks, Angus Fyffe went for one and I followed. We 2up'ed for about half a lap and then a group of 10 or so bridged across. Myself and Angus went for it again with a lap to go, and again were on our own for half a lap, but then were caught and the results were going to be between the 10 of us. Long story short, I spent most of the last 10mins on the front and then everybody rode round me at the line. Schooled.

Irish XC NPS Round 1 - Cong - 1st Junior

First round of the National XC Series, had been looking forward to this one for a while. I hadn't been looking forward to the 6hr drive to Cong so much, but the team haven't sorted out the private jets yet, so Matt Adair's Nissan Micra was the next best thing. After being sunny all week, the weekend came and the skies let it all out. Every last drop. What I'm sure would've been a class, fast track in the dry became the mess that you see above; with even some of the fire-roads unrideable, mental. Nonetheless, there was a race to be done, and if you're going to get muddy, you may aswell do it right. Spent 99% of the race sideways on dry tyres, but I guess everyone else spent 100% of the race sideways as I managed to win Juniors with 16mins to spare. Got up to 3rd S1 by the end of my race.

The new Giant has a throttle #givinghersome

Cong had no showers, but there was plenty of water around after the weekend's downpours.

Tour Of Ards - Newtownards - 2nd Junior
We rode round at 25mph for a couple of hours, then got closer to 30 as we neared the finish, and then I was over the line before I knew it! Had never seen the finish before, not even sure I've been to Newtownards before, so circumstances weren't ideal. Could tell we were coming near the finish when everything started getting super-fast. Was in the middle of what was left of the bunch, feeling good, then by the time I saw where the line was, it was too late to do anything, and that was that. Ended up as 2nd Junior and pretty close to the top of A3, so was pleasantly surprised! Nice sunny spin anyway!

Lakeland GP - Enniskillen - 2nd Overall
Here's a link to a report - http://www.stickybottle.com/races-results/conor-mcateer-david-montgomery-outwit-elites-to-share-spoils-at-lakeland-gp/ - told you those glasses were dark!

Davagh Enduro - 1st Junior, 2nd Overall

The new trails up at Davagh had just had the ribbons cut, so there was an Enduro race on to celebrate the grand opening. 5 timed 'downhill' stages, having to pedal from one stage to get to the next, so it wasn't suited to a DH bike, but probably wasn't all that suited to the XC race bike either. Ah well, that was all I had and it'd be good training for XC. Rattled round the course with a couple of mates; had a deadly day's craic and rode some super trails. After having a couple of mechanical issues, and what I think are the standard first time 'Enduro racer' issues (completely forgetting to check in at the timing poles at the end of the stage, riding straight through them, and then having to drop the bike and run back to check in) I was pretty stoked to come home with 1st Junior and 2nd Overall in the bag.

You're still here? Sweet. Thanks for reading. You're probably one of only a few who've made it this far, so for their sake, I'll keep the rest til tomorrow.

Coming up: 
British XC NPS Round 1 - Sherwood Pines
Irish XC NPS 2 - Fossa Wood, Killarney
Ulster XC Round 2 - Rostrevor
Hugo Loughran GP - Coalisland
Rostrevor Gravity Enduro
Scottish XC Round 2 - Cathkin Braes
Ras Loughguile


Big thanks to the XMTB Development Squad and our sponsors for all the help so far -
McConvey Cycles,
Giant,
Specialized,
Torq,
Fenwicks,
Minoura
and Tifosi.

Cheers, Monty