Jack and I headed out to Northern Ireland last week for the second round of the K-Capital Cup, at Moneyscalp Woods. This, as it turns out, is the alternative to going to my going to Cyprus or somewhere else sunny.

Day 0 (Friday)

I was missing my forks, as they hadn’t returned from warranty the day before as promised. I took my old Marathon SLs off Emma’s bike. I also broke my pedals the weekend before, so had ordered a new set, which also hadn’t turned up (same supplier in both cases here!), so I had to go buy the cheapest Eggbeaters available at full retail price from the Bike Coop.

Jack phones me at about 8pm to tell me that he’s booked the ferries the wrong way round. I laugh, right before mild panic kicks in. We decide just to rock up to the Cairnryan ferry and see what happens.

Bad Karma for the weekend over, woo!

Day 1 (Saturday)

Jack picks me up at 3am, I barely had 4 hours sleep after finishing work. The journey goes well, and we’re at the ferry terminal early. We pull up to the check-in, keeping our cool. We hand over the booking number to the check-in girl (OMG, the suspense!). Turns out it was all cool, the girl swapped the bookings round with no fuss, so it must happen fairly often. So, muchos thanks to P&O Irish Sea.

After a brief blow about on the decks, we napped for the rest of the ferry journey. We get to Larne, and hit up the Sainsburys in Belfast for some porridge and coffee. I also had a roll and sausage, because. Much hilarity was had at the green rugby shirts and potatoes in the shop, much to the bemusement of the other customers.

We headed straight for the course after this for some practice laps. You’ll hear this again, but Moneyscalp woods is one of the best courses I have ever ridden. It starts with a steep fireroad climb, before hitting some steep rooty/rocky/loamy singletrack for most of the rest of the course, apart from about 1km of flat fireroad in the middle. I was totally loving it, and apart from a few tricky spots we rode over several times, it was amazing. Our welcome from the organiser was great to, it’s nice to get some banter and a smile in a strange place.

After a few laps we headed to the accommodation, which was to be Mourne Hostel, right in the heart of the Mourne Hills. You know your accommodation is going to be good when you get a phone call before you arrive to check that the ferry crossing went well, especially when this is a hostel we’re talking about. The hostel was in fact, amazing. Clean and tidy, en-suite room, nice kitchen, 50” plasma TV on the wall, etc! We couldn’t have been made to feel more welcome.

Day 2 (Sunday)

Due to not having got round to organising a BC license upgrade to expert, I was riding in the sport race, so midday start it was. After a feeble attempt at a warmup I headed to the start. Gridding was hilarious, as none of the called-up riders made an appearance at the front, so I got on the front row by virtue of luck! Thinking about what the sport races were like in the SXC a few years ago, I was expecting my lack of speed work to be a real problem for me, so had made the decision to follow the fastest guy’s wheel off the line, and see what happened.

The whistle went, and we were off. I got onto the fastest guy’s wheel as planned, but then, as the track steepened, he was going too slow for me. Steep for me is good, or any climb really. I locked my forks out, popped into a higher gear, and put the hammer down. So, from 100m out, I led. This definitely worked to my advantage, as even though I was right on the limit, going as fast as I could, I was getting a clean run at all the technical stuff.

I never saw anyone for the three laps, apart from the juveniles who had started a few minutes prior, and those members of the field who I lapped. A pretty comfortable win, with 11 minutes back to the second place rider, in a race lasting just over an hour.

(Rules is rules, my expired license says sport, yet I’ve raced expert for three years in the SXC due to loose rules. I will have an expert license for the rest of the season, with this race being ultimate proof that I deserve one.)

Jack was racing in expert, and despite feeling tired beforehand, came through the feed zone after lap one in second. Ben Reid, the Irish DH champion was leading, elbows out, baggy shorts, the whole shebang. Jack was catching him lap by lap, and eventually made the pass on the third lap.

Going into his last lap, Robin Seymour had just passed him, but Jack decided to pass him again in the feed zone, shaking his fist in glee, with a huge smile on his face. Robin didn’t look impressed, and passed Jack again further up the hill.

So Jack took the win, and after a half hour of not believing me, had it confirmed by the second place rider who came over in the car park (field) to shake hands. Optimal!

So a double-haul it was for the Scotland boys! We both got rather snazzy glass trophies in a rather friendly presentation ceremony. We also got invited to ride the round 4 course at Castlewellan on Tuesday with some of the locals.

Day 3 (Monday)

For Monday we had planned a big mountain, based on a cursive look at an OS map the day before. We started at Bloody Bridge just south of Newcastle, and mostly carried the bikes through a boulder-field for 2km and 600m of climbing. Once at the top of the saddle we were treated to one of the best technical traverses I have ever ridden, which apart from both of us being blown down the hill at one point, was super fun.

Once over to the other side we did a flying lap of the previous day’s race-course, lapping only 4 minutes slower than the day before. Not too bad after 4 hours of riding. Jack then time-trialled it back into Newcastle, with me nursing my knee on his wheel.

Day 4 (Tuesday)

We were a bit late to meet up with the locals at Castlewellan, but still managed to find all the course without a map. It was on similar terrain to Moneyscalp, albeit with even steeper climbs. Great fun, even on tired legs. After a few laps we headed back for a coffee in Sainsburys, then the ferry.

The journey home was pretty good, apart from a small misdirection due to the lack of signage for Glasgow. Do Ayrshire council have something against putting Glasgow on the signs?

Big thanks to Jack for the driving and organisation, the hostel for the accommodation, and all the great people we met at the race and elsewhere. We will be back next year for more.