The final round of the 2009 Irish Enduro Championship took place on the 25th of October at Tinahealy, County Wicklow.
A 10am start time was an hour earlier than usual so the organizers could take the course down in the daylight and this led to a few bleary eyes at the start as those who travelled on Sunday morning had an early start and those that arrived Saturday had a late night, as the start was from it’s usual location at The Gap Pub.
The Special test was early in the 1st check and was a tricky and technical affair, as it wound across tree-root strewn cambers through two sections of forest joined by a short but fast gravel road. It was fairly wet in places, but no more so than the rest of the course which had suffered at the hands of some heavy rain in the run up to the event. Thankfully race day saw no downpours and some sunshine.
Two loops made up the lap,one on the mountain ‘behind’ the pub and one ‘in front’. ‘Tinahealy’ should be renamed ‘Tinahilly’ as one of the toughest bits of the course was the hillclimb back over the mountain on the 2nd loop. This was a long loose gravel climb with no run up that went straight into a muddy and still very steep forest that had 2 fairly evil ruts to paddle up and more forming during the day as riders tried every way possible to get to the top. Once at the top the riders were greeted by a section that is always included in the Tinahealy course, a wet muddy track alongside a wall that has lots of very large bits of solid rock jutting out from the gloop that sap away the last bits of energy left at the end of a tough lap as riders heaved their bikes up and over them.
Paul McLoughin took the win in the expert class beating Andrew Reeves, who was 2nd on the day but won the championship overall. Regular expert class riders Mick Kearns and Phil Caldwell were 3rd and 4th respectively, with Phil having just returned from the sunshine of Portugal and after the dust and sand of the ISDE it was back down to earth with a splash. Literally.
Patrick Kinlan won the Senior class from John O’Neill and took the championship win aswell. These two have been locked in a battle for championship honors all year and a DNF by John at the last round gave Patrick the advantage as he led going into this last race. Bernard McKevitt was 3rd on the day.
In the popular Clubman class, David McNulty already had the championship sewn up, so wasn’t too bothered when Liam O’Brien pipped him for the win by nearly eight seconds. Danny Balmforth was 3rd on the day which leapfrogged him into 2nd overall in the championship standings.
Richard Leonard won the Sportsman class from two Davids, Fitzgerald (2nd) and Farrell (3rd) and in the Novice class for riders that have just started racing Enduro, Alan Banner won from Joe Casey and Robin Cooper.
The soup and sandwiches were as popular as the pints in the pub afterwards as riders dried out by the fire and told their own stories after an excellent days racing that finished off the Irish championship for another year.
Thanks to all at TORC club and all the timekeepers and marshals that have given up their time to help run the championship races throughout the year.
We now look forward to the 2010 Irish championship, see you then!
Pictures can be seen at http://picasaweb.google.com/lynnrobert1/TinahealyIrishEnduro2009#
Thanks to Robbie ‘Not Long Now’ Lynn for the photos