The Glendalough Enduro has traditionally been the season opener for the Irish Enduro Championship and this years event ran on the 16th of May. In recent years the weather has been unkind and it was perfectly normal for riders to finish the event hardly recognizable due to the wet muddy conditions. This year took everyone by surprise as it was dry and dusty. That’s right, dusty! In fact it was the driest event since records began and certainly as far back as TORC club official Dave McCann could remember and that’s a long way back…
The start area was buzzing from early morning as everyone got sign on and scrutiny out of the way and were looking forward to some dry weather racing for a welcome change.
The lap ran in the opposite direction to normal and it was all the better for it as the first check gave everyone something to think about and some great trails, tracks and forest breaks to enjoy. The check times were good enough to keep you moving without having to go mad and so it looked like it would be won or lost on the test.
And what a test it was, fast and furious it set off with a standing start on tiny lane with riders catapulting themselves off the tarmac into a bone dry path, from there it went up, up and up again on a never ending climb through the open and into the darkness of a thick forest where the odd tree root and stump were there to catch out the unwary or the over ambitious. The descent back down the hill that has been used in several Glendalough tests was bone dry but fairly well washed out in places and the never ending down hill was fast and scary to say the least, with a few fallen trees to duck under thrown in for good measure.
This fast downhill must have felt familiar to Mountain Bike star Jamie Popham as he took the Senior class win from Paul McCarthy, who was lucky to get 2nd from Stewart Dicker, by 3 seconds and Dave McNulty, who followed on only 2 seconds adrift from Stewy. If these 3 championship regulars carry this kind of close competition into the rest of the season it will be a great scrap for the overall class honors come October. Another notable entry in the Senior class was 2009 IRC Rally champion Kris Meeke from Northern Ireland. Kris drives a car flat out round forests for a living and when his IRC calendar allows he rides a bike flat out round forests for fun.
In the Expert class Gordon Clarke stamped his authority on Irish Enduro with the 3 fastest test times of the day and put his Electration TM on the top of the pile of Experts a good 30 seconds in front of the hard charging Paul McLoughlin in second and Mick O’Leary in 3rd who got his first Expert class podium place after Andrea Bassi struck oil from his TM crankcase on the last lap and Andrew Reeves chucked it down the road in the 2nd test.
Mark Bannon won the Clubman class with 2 good test times that would have stood him well in Seniors had he fancied doing another lap, he won by 32 seconds from Enda O’Brien with Jason Jackson close behind in 3rd 8 seconds away from O’Brien. Richie Leonard was in 4th after popping his shoulder back in like Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon.
New club secretary Richard Murphy broke his duck and won the Sportsman class by a solid 20 seconds, this could be the start of a meteoric rise to the top for Richard and we hope to see him in the Expert class soon (next week I think). John Carroll was 2nd after he pipped JP Ryan by a massive 1.6 seconds.
2010 Glendalough was a great enduro and hopefully there will be more fast, challenging and dry weather Enduros ahead in the Irish Championship.
Thanks to all at the TORC club for setting,planning and running the event.
(No pictures again as Robbie Lynn selfishly decided to ride instead of taking photos)
Report by Reevesy for www.enduro.ie