We are delighted to announce that Pure Power Systems have come on board as title sponsor for our Junior Race Team in 2013. Technical Director of Pure Power Systems Ian Jackson is an avid mountain biker and current Imbrc Club League Champion. Ian was keen to put something back into the club and sponsoring the junior team was the perfect opportunity. The deal will involve new team kit, race support, assistance with travel costs and coaching sessions. This will help us develop and promote the youth riders within the club and to grow youth xc mountain biking to the wider community.
Pure power Systems was established in 2003, and are one of Ireland’s leading companies specialising in the sale and service of Power Quality Products. We are looking forward to working with them for the coming season.
We are back for 2013 with a couple of beginner spins. These have proved quite popular over the last few years so this is your chance to come out with the club for a fun spin.
Beginner Spin 2012
Beginner Spin 2012
Beginner Spin 2012
Beginner Spin 2012
Dates for the beginner spins are as follows:
Sunday 24th Feb/Ballinastoe 10:30amCancelled due to snow
Sunday 10th March/Ticnock 10:30amComplete
These spins are open to both men and women over 14 years of age. Riders under 18 years of age are required to print off and bring along a signed parental consent form and give it to the spin leader: click here
If you dont have a mountain bike, Biking.iewill be offering a discount off bike hire to anyone taking part in the spin. Just mention IMBRC beginner series when booking.
You will need the following:
A helmet (No Helmet = No spin)
A mountain bike in good working order and working brakes
Appropriate cycling clothing for cold, wet weather, gloves (no jeans or track suits)
Spare tube, basic tools (allen key set, tyre levers)
Food (cereal bar, banana…etc)
Water
For additional info and comments, see the club forum click here
Registration
You must register for these spins, please use the form below and submit
The Off-Road Commission have just announced the dates for next years XC NPS Series. Racing will take place over 6 rounds with the best 5 rounds counting towards the overall league result for senior & junior riders.
More details of hosting clubs & venues will be released early next year.
It maybe be still winter 2012 but already we are looking forward to next year. Details of the very popular Biking Blitz series have been released for 2013. This is a good beginner friendly race series as well as providing a tougher challenge for the more experienced racer with longer or more laps.
The Blitz is run by Biking.ie and next year will be its 3rd year on the go. There are 4 rounds, starting on the 3rd Feb with the Wicklow Blitz and finishing on the 17th Mar with the Dublin Blitz. IMBRC had a good turnout at these events last year, with the youth team picking up a few podiums along the way.! Our particular favourite among the series was the Limerick Blitz in Ballyhoura. Well worth the trip down.!
Get training folks, only 2 months till the season kicks off.
Official release from the MTB Rendezvous organisers.
We are in the unfortunate position of announcing the cancellation of the MTB Rendezvous 2012, due to take place in Knockree Youth Hostel this coming Sunday, 23rdSeptember.
We have received tremendous support for this new format of socialising on a bike, which encompasses all the good things about cycling. Both from the cycling industry in Ireland, the many individuals and cycling clubs looking to participate to the local businesses who welcome cyclist through their doors every weekend.
Unfortunately the success of this novel idea has been its down fall and has brought concerns from the forestry state body Coillte regarding access to their lands and the byelaws covering this. Due to these concerns we will not be continuing with the Rendezvous.
As organisers of the Rendezvous, our sole objective was to provide a social lunch for all who arrived at Knockree by which ever means they wished. It has never been to organise the routes anyone cycled.
Keen cyclist as we are, we are not members of any Cycling Ireland club, nor was this a competitive event. However the threat hanging over future Cycling Ireland events on Coillte land has been too great. We respect Coillte’s concerns and the byelaws governing their forests and access and do not want to jeopardise any future MTB events with the possibility of substantial numbers of cyclists on their land.
So I would ask all cyclists to do what you do every Sunday and enjoy your biking in designated trails. Thank you again for the interest you have shown in Rendezvous.
This is great event coming up in the next couple of weeks which IMBRC will be supporting along with other local MTB clubs for the largest social Sunday spin ever. We will be calling on all current and ex members to come along and join us.
The official blurb
MTB Rendezvous Sunday 23rd September 2012
Revive your Ride on the ultimate Sunday spin.
If you are one of the hundreds of mountain bikers who head into the hills every weekend, there is a not to be missed spin for you coming this month.
MTB Rendezvous is a new concept for an MTB spin gathering everyone for food and refreshments at the end of their cycle in Knockree Youth Hostel at 12:00 noon, Sunday 23rd September.
Catering for all abilities you can ride out with your club or regular cycling buddies and travel as far a distance as your legs will take you and from any starting point. The only requirement is to Rendezvous at 12:00 noon in Knockree Youth Hostel.
The concept was put together by a few old time mountain bikers from Dublin keen to create a social MTB event where all abilities could participate in. Trying to create a spin to suit the Super Pro’s and the local trail riders proved just about impossible as routes would be too severe or too tame. Either way everyone would split up and be spread across two mountains (not very sociable) within the first hour. So the idea was to reverse it. Let each group of riders or club choose their own preferred route and cycle out for 1, 2 or 3 hours where everyone would Rendezvous in the one place at the one time.
With Knockree Youth Hostel kindly providing the venue it has the facilities to cater for hundreds of tired and hungry mountain bikers. Nestled in between Enniskerry and Glencree and within view from Djouce forest and the Wicklow way, it is the ideal location for such a gathering and only a short cycle home on the road.
There is no car parking at Knockree so don’t forget to make allowances for your spin home. Enniskerry is only 6km away or take a short climb over the Featherbeds and then downhill all the way back to Rathfranham.
With the great support from all the local MTB clubs, EPIC MTB, Mountainbike Association of Dublin, IMBRC, Team WORC, Racing 795, Rocky Mountain and the Off-Road Commission, all the refreshments will be free to everyone who can Rendezvous at 12:00 noon.
Are you going to Rendezvous?
Further details and updates see us here on facebook
This years NPS season kicked off in style last weekend with round 2 (round 1 was cancelled) on the brilliant Bellurgan Park course just outside Dundalk. The hosting club Cuchulainn CC have done a great job improving this venue over the last 2 years and it has now become one of the highlights of the race calendar.
There was a very large turnout for this event which was helped by the dry if a little chilly conditions and the course reputation. There was also a large IMBRC turnout with about 25 riders making the short trip up the M1.
There was some great racing early on with the youth categories fighting it out for the medals. We had some brilliant performances from our junior team yet again..!David McGarr finished in 2nd in the U10′s cat with his brother Adam placing 3rd in U12′s just behind Ryan Dunne in 2nd place (photo below).
In u14′s we had Johnny Quinn (photo below) come home in 4th place in a really close category with less that a minute separating the top 9 riders.
In u16′s we had Antony Quinn finish in a good 5th place having let 3rd place slip away in the finishing straight to Scott Wallace 3rd & Conor Levelle 4th (both MAD MTB). We also had an improving Aaron Lynch 11th in his first race this year after returning from a series of injuries.
The senior categories were fast and furious with large numbers in each group which made passing difficult on the tight fast track, so it was all important to get a good start and get into the single track as far up as possible. In S1 men James McCluskey placed a respectable 8th in a strong field which was won by Peter Buggle (Rocky Mountain), followed by Ray O’Shaughnessy (Cuchulainn CC) & Roger Aiken (Banbridge CC).
Our best placed rider in S2 was Joe Jones 17th, with Colm Keane in 31st and David Askin (photo below) in 38th. Jim Haide was a DNF after suffering mechanical problems while running in the top 10. S2 was won by Stuart Galloway (WORC) followed by Simon Curry (Banbridge CC) & Paddy Makey (WORC).
The S3 category is huge this year with 78 riders lining up on the start line. Again the start is crucial with such a big field.! There was a bit of an incident on the start loop which a number of riders got caught up in. Anyone who missed it was away and clear.! This very competitive cat was won by Brian Hutchinson (EPIC) followed by Marcin Drozdziok (U/A) & Mark Farrell (U/A). We had Glen Guilda finish in a superb 5th place, less than 2 mins behind the winner. Greg Cahill was 11th, Davey Dunne 13th, Ladislav Faska 18th (photo below), Paul Barry 25th, Michale Cummins 46th, & Aidan Duffy who is listed incorrectly in the results as a DNS.
Another big field in S4, which was won by Barry McCabe (Killarny CC) followed by Peter Boaden (EPIC DH) & Joe O’Leary (Killarney CC). We had Leo McGarr coming back from injury in 15th place and Arek Wjotunik 42nd.
It was a great days racing and we are looking forward to the next round in Cork.
Photos supplied by Conor Byrne Photography, Keith Wallace & Derek Hayes
Next weekend sees the start of the Biking Blitz series run by Biking.ie with the first or 4 rounds on Sunday 19th in Ballinstoe Woods, Co Wicklow. This is a beginner friendly series as its run on trail center courses, so it would be a good introduction to XC racing in the Baggy Shorts category.
For the more experienced racer there is the Super Pro category which will provide a tough enough challenge with the added bonus of cash prizes for the overall series winner.
This would be ideal for riders who took part in our recent beginner spins and current club racers as a warm up to the NPS series.
Here’s a video from our recent beginner spin in Ballinastoe Woods, Co Wicklow shot and edited by Brian Cribbin. Bit of a showery day but everyone had good time and came back in one piece
So for the past few weeks a good few of our club members have ditched the bike and shlompy trails for the comfort of indoor climbing, or bouldering to give it its proper name. A new indoor climbing center Gravity Climbing Center has opened recently in Inchicore, Dublin 8…So we decided to go check it out.!
For most of us this was our first time climbing since the local tree or neighbors garden wall when we were kids so we took the introduction lesson with Terry, one of the instructors. For €20 it was well worth it, Terry showed us the ropes and guided us through the basic techniques of bouldering. After an hour or so he left us to it and off we went to tackle the various color coded routes ourselves. The blue routes are the easiest, so we worked away on them for the night.
It was quite tough at first getting to grips with the technique but its been getting easier as the weeks go on…! If you want you can stay there all night until they close, but after a while your arms are hanging off you if your not used to it. The lighter skinnier mountain bikers among us tend to find it much easier to climb up the wall like a monkey while the not so light and skinny find it a bit tougher We’ve nearly had more members going climbing than on spins, we might have to change the club name to Irish Rock Climbing Racing Club
All said, the Gravity Climbing Center is handy to get to, friendly helpful staff, not expensive and a fun way to spend a few hours in the evening. Go check it out..!
