A Carnethy contingent travelled to Ireland this weekend for the first of the British Championship races. As is the way with the Irish counter of recent years the course was another new one taking in a different ascent of Slieve Donard from the park in Newcastle followed by a hellishly rough descent (at least the line I took) to an old smugglers route known as the brandy path. From there it was a fast run to the bottom of Slieve Commedagh and a short climb to the summit before a great ridge descent and a whirlwind descent through the trees to the finish back at sea level.
Local celebrity Iain Whiteside managed to tear himself away from the photocalls and handshakes to put in a decent run finishing 10th, while our very own celebrity Andy Fallas stormed ahead to place a brilliant 4th. Konrad also had a great run despite fighting a bout of food poisoning earlier in the week to finish 26th. I suffered to a pitiful 74th, Simon Titmuss was 110th and Charlotte Morgan finished 9th despite suffering from a dodgy hip since her win at Carnethy 5. Despite this the men managed 5th placed team so plenty of room for improvement in the coming races!
Ice cream by the beach was the order of the day at the finish, although the sun was deceptively weak and the stiff breeze left us somewhat hypothermic as a result. Fantastic accommodation in the grounds of the Castle Ward country estate eased the recovery before a slow sunday trip (or two) round the estate mountain bike trails following the “Wintertour”, which took us round film locations from Game of Thrones. I confess this was somewhat lost on me, but the views were pretty. A (free!) tour of the mansion in the afternoon rounded out a superb weekend. Thanks to the captains for organising.
Alex McVey