The Irish Downhill Mountain Biking Series is officially back with a bang after last weekend in Rostrevor Mountain Biking Centre.
The atmosphere was electric, and the weather had the track primed perfectly for the days of racing that lay ahead. A whopping 26 GAP MTB Entries for the IDMS round 1 last weekend 18 of which made it over the finish line on the race run.

GAP Brand Ambassador and Sponsored Rider Cat Brady had only come off the back of a torn bicep from a previous mountain biking injury earlier in the year, we are blown away considering her impressive time and composure. She had this to say of the weekend: –

This weekend we were in Rostrevor for round 1 of the IDMS Downhill! Day 1 my first run didn’t go so well with a fall on Hecklers on my very first attempt at it. My second practice run was messy and then it was time for my Seeding Run. I crashed a third of the way down, this time breaking the visor off my helmet and my back brake lever clean off, so I had to walk the rest of the track culminating in a DNF! Thanks to Peter aka mournemountaingoat I was back in action Sunday morning, but the course had to close earlier than expected so I didn’t get in a practice run. For the race run I decided to try get a clean run and not push for speed so was thrilled to get down in one piece especially considering I took an unexpected line over Hecklers Rock! I ended up fourth overall which I was absolutely thrilled with considering the level of the girls in this competition. Can’t wait till the next one!”

-Fair Play Cat!!

GAP Sponsored Rider Jamie Wall finished 6th in the under 21s and here’s how he found it: –

“My weekend started off with track walk on Friday which went quite well and gave me a good idea of what to expect on Saturday which started off with a very greasy track which was a bit hard to get used to. A few changes to the bike were made and I found my flow for seeding on Saturday. Seeding was a good run with a few mistakes, but my time was off by 30 seconds which put me far back in the pack for race on Sunday. On Sunday morning I dialled in all my lines I was having trouble with on Saturday and started to open up the throttle and was feeling class on the bike. Race run came around and I was feeling unreal, got a savage warm up in and dropped in for the best run of my life, everything was going smoothly until a lack of concentration caused my front wheel to slide out before hecklers rock, took my time getting back up and ended up in 6th, 4 seconds back off the podium. Happy to know that the speed is there and I’m looking forward to racing in Wales in 2 weeks’ time!”

– G’wan Jamie ye mad thing ye!

GAP Sponsored Rider Conor Cartwright nabbed 2nd place in the under 16s and got his podium moment! He had this to say for himself: –

“Great results this weekend practice day went well with no crashes and finishing up my seeding run in second place. second day practice didn’t go too well ended up bending one of my cranks the last practice run but managed to get that sorted out just in time for the race! At the top of the track, I was very nervous as I had just had a crash the run before… ended up having a clean race run with only one or two minor mistakes and ended up taking second place in the under sixteens category!

Very happy with my result this weekend and I’m going to make a push for first place at the next Race”

-Conor, you’re on fire!

Lisa Davis of GAPMTB had this to say  ‘Conor placing 29th overall out of 260 riders, amazing result for a 15 year old! and Jamie Wall 35th overall! Unreal, considering (Jamie) had a crash which added 10 seconds onto his time and he’s only 17’

 

Take a look at the podium winners sorted by race run time:

As the times suggest it was a super tight run with little margin for error, it made some exceptionally competitive race results. We’ve included the GAP MTB times here along with the podium winners.

Shout out to our fallen soldiers that didn’t make it to the race run, Sponsored rider Jamie Duffy had a bad off on one of the practice runs on Saturday and couldn’t continue to compete the next day, despite this he is seen still smiling below. Mark McCabe came off on his race and injured his wrist and was unable to continue… representing the women Lyndsay Tracey unfortunately also came off on her last practice before race run. Hoping for a speedy recovery to them and for anyone else feeling a little sore after Rostrevor. What an amazing event, well done to the organisers!

Full Race Results are Posted here: http://www.offroadcyclingireland.ie/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/2022_IDMS_Round_1_Rostrevor_Race_Run_Results.pdf
Pics from 89media are purchasable here: – https://gallery.eightynine.media/gallery/idms-rostrevor-practice/home
Roots and Rain pics here: https://www.rootsandrain.com/event10201/2022-apr-3-idms-1-rostrevor-co-down/results/

IDMS ROUND 2 resumes in Shronaboy Farm Killarney on the 20/21st of August hosted by Killarney CC
IDMS ROUND 3 Takes place in none other than Glencullen Adventure Park, Dublin, 24/25th September Hosted by GAPMTB
NATIONAL CHAMPS Rounds up in Bree Co.Wexford on the 23/24th Hosted by Bree Racing

Thinking of joining an MTB Club? GAPMTB is free to join as long as you have a current cycling Ireland Licence.