Junior win for Matthew Adair

Vitus rider Matthew Adair took part in the fourth round of the Irish XC league this weekend in Tollymore Forest Park, Newcastle, Co Down.  He took the win in the junior race.  Here’s his round-up of the event. 

Vitus rider Matthew Adair took part in the fourth round of the Irish XC league this weekend in Tollymore Forest Park, Newcastle, Co Down.  He took the win in the junior race.  Here’s his round-up of the event.

"This weekend was the 4th round of the Irish XC league, in the week leading up to the race the weather was bad with lots of rain.  The course was very muddy with almost no dry sections but I was still looking forwarded to it. 

Another poor junior turnout meant I planned to race the elites even thought I wouldn’t get an official result in the elite race.  Unlike the other races the juniors started at the back of the elite race so i knew it would be hard to make it up to the front of the main field, however i was wrong and after about 150m I was up to second and moved into first on the first technical section.

Over the first lap I had a gap of 30 seconds behind the first elite rider.  On the second lap I kept a lead of about 30seconds but I had a disastrous 3rd and 4th lap with several crashes on the muddy course.  After pushing too hard into some corners I was caught by the second placed rider, however my bad luck didn’t stop there and as I was going through the bomb hole a rider crashed in front of me and when I was half way down, with nowhere to go I had to go into the side of the crash and then lost the lever of my right hand shifter so i was stuck in the same gear for the rest of the lap.

As the junior race was only four laps I finished at the end of that lap anyway but still won the junior race but was quite disappointed not to see where I would have finished in the elite race.  Overall I’m still happy with my performance. "

Matthew Adair