Second round of the IDMS in Rostrevor

The second round of the IDMS was held in Rostrevor in northern Ireland. The race was held on the 4/5 of may , They were racing a brand new official track so every one was looking forward to the weekend as it would be something new.

Saturday practice went well , My first few runs were sketchy as the track was a bit greecey so it took me a few runs to get up to speed. I was riding with my team mate Kipper all day and I think we must have busted out about 6 or 7 runs as the uplifts were going flat out. Although I had a chest infection coming into the weekend I was still very much so enjoying myself and after having a good day of practice I was looking forward to Sunday race day.

I Got 2 runs in before my seeding run on Sunday morning and was feeling good for race day , The track was a little bit greecey again in the morning but dried up and was sweet for runs. My seeding run was descent put a solid run together but new I could take some time off in my race run . After a long break in between seeding and race runs I headed up for my run , I hit the top section in my run very well and was on a good run , Unfortunately another rider that was on the track crashed in front of me and I had to go and do a rerun.

I was a little annoyed as the run I was on was going very good but there was nothing I could do . My rerun went okay , I had a few little mistakes up the top that would have cost me a little bit but nothing to major , I was hoping to beat my seeding time as I felt I had a faster run but to my surprise I came down and but the exact same time in which placed me second in my category and my time would also have won the junior category.

All in all was a great weekends racing and I am looking forward to the next race which will be in Innerleithen on the 1/2 of June .

Thanks to Dermott sweeney for the sweet photos.

https://www.facebook.com/DermottSweeneyPhotography?fref=ts

Massive thanks to all my sponsors for their amazing support. ChainReactionCycles Nukeproof Ireland , Schwalbe , Crank brothers , Ride 100% and \mucky nutz.

First Round of the IDMS in Mallow

The first round of the IDMS series was held in Mallow, Co Cork. Myself and Gavin Kelly set sail early Saturday morning with about a 3 hour drive ahead of us . When we arrived we went straight ahead and walked the track , The track looked like good fun , It was quite long for a Irish track and was quite fast and rough with some tight Forrest sections.

I managed to bust out about 5 or 6 runs on Saturday practice , I was having great fun Riding with the lads on a good track in the sunny weather. I was feeling quite comfortable on the track and was ready for race day.
Unfortunately the weather was not a good on Sunday as it was on the Saturday it was quite cloudy and started raining for runs. My seeding run didn't go as planned , My hands froze up due to the cold and I was unable to shift gears , I came down in first place some how and managed to stay there and was last off for finals. After having not a great seeding run a new I could better myself for Finals , I put a lot of effort into all the physical sections of the track and felt very fit , I did not push as hard as I should have in the Forrest and ended up in second place , A steady enough start to the season but i no i can better myself ,

The next race on my calendar is the second round of the IDMS in rostrevor in May.

A big thanks to all my Sponsors , ChainReactionCycles Nukeproof Ireland , Ride 100% , Contour

100% Goggles

So Happy To be Riding for 100% goggles this year , There products are so sick and look pimping,

Here is a pic of some of the goodies I received the other day.

Massive thanks to Ride 100% and Decade Europe ,Go ahead and check out there facebook pages in the links below.



http://www.facebook.com/pages/Decade-Europe-LTD/310739255667180

http://www.facebook.com/ride100percent?fref=ts

Winter league Round 2 Bree co.Wexford

.The second round of the Irish winter series was held in Bree in Co. wexford  We arrived on Saturday to walk and get some practice in on the track , From walking it , it looked like good fun had some nice berms and a good few jumps but was quite pedally. I only got about 3 runs in on Saturday for practice but felt good as it didn't take much to get up to speed on such a short track

Sunday practice went real well , I had rained over night so the track was riding much faster and was great fun. I got about 2 runs in before i had to get ready and head up for my seeding run.

 My seeding run went real well , I rode all my lines and head a fairly good run placing me in 1st place nearly 10 second ahead of 2nd, I new i could take a few second off my time and but me higher in the overall times.

For my race run I pushed the top section very hard and got pretty sketchy , I ended up taking it a littler easier in the bottom section to make sure I stayed on , I felt that my race run was much faster then my seeding but unfortunately was 2 second slower which I wasn't to happy about , I still managed to take 1st in the youth category which was great,

All in all was a good weekend racing and I am looking forward to the next race I will be doing which will be the first round of the Irish IDMS in Mallow Co. Cork in April,

Massive thanks to all my sponsors : ChainreactinCycles , Nukeproof Ireland , Schwalbe , 100% and Crank Brothers .

Race Calender

These are a list of all the races that I will be attending in the 2013 season.

 1. February 10th = Irish winter series = Ireland 

 2. February 23rd/24th = Borderline Events Innerleithen = Scotland

3. March 10th = Irish winter series = Ireland 

 4. April 6/7 = NPS = Ireland

5. May 4-5 = NPS = Ireland
 
6. May 11/12 = fortwilliam Halo BDS = Scotland
 
7. June 1-2 = Innerleithen= Halo BDS = Scotland

8. June 22-23 = NPS =Ireland

9. June 28/30 = Llangollen= Halo BDS = Wales

10. August 24-25 = NPS = Ireland

11. August 24-25 = Bringewood = Halo BDS = Wales

12. September 28-29 = NPS = Ireland

Innerleithen Winter race

I set off Tuesday Afternoon to get the train up North to my team mate Kippers house , Early Wednesday morning Dan , Kipper and myself headed off to do a photo shoot in ChainReactionCycles and to get all of our new kit for the season , I was super excited to get the new bikes as they looked amazing and I was really eager to get racing on them. After getting the bike and all out new kit myself and kipper packed the car for our early start on Thursday to get the ferry.

After walking the track I was very excited to get practicing on Sunday , the track was nice and long , fast and very tight ,

Up early Saturday morning for a good feed and to go and sign on nice and early , The weather was not to bad but it was very cold , First few runs were taken fairly easy to make sure I knew where I was going ,
After getting to know the track it was great to get some fast runs in Behind my team mate Kipper on the new bikes , Everything felt fresh and The bikes were amazing,

After getting around 6 or so runs in on Saturday I felt very comfortable on the track and was looking forward to race day . On Sunday morning the track seamed to be alot dryer then Saturday which was great , Got to runs in then headed up for my race run feeling good.

My race run started off great , Hit the top of the track exactly how I wanted to and felt very powerful , not long into my run unfortunately I had quite a big over the bars and ended up with a mechanical and could not finish my race run , Having that happen was quite a bummer but all in all was a great weekends riding away on the new bikes and will hopefully make up for the next race I am doing which will be In Bree , Wexford for the second round of the Irish Winter League .

Here are some photos of me from the weekend.

http://www.rootsandrain.com/rider5714/ben-kennedy/photos/

Big thanks to ChainReaction , Nukeproof , Schwalbe and Ride 100%

Team CRC-Nukeproof-Ireland 2013 launched

I am so excited to be apart of the new Team CRC Nukeproof Ireland for the 2013 season . It is amazing to have ChainReactionCycles involved with the team this year as I feel there added support will help me achieve my goals for this season ,

The Link Below is the Launch with pictures of the team and a very interesting write up.

http://www.chainreactionhub.com/mtb/702-teamcrc-nukeproof-ireland-2013-launched