XC NPS Round 1 Track: A Rider’s Perspective

A group of riders from MADMTB set off from Dublin yesterday for an eagerly anticipated test spin around the superbly engineered NPS #1 track in Bellurgan Park Co. Louth, which had previously been used for last year’s Leinster League race (and also the 12hr Bellurgan challenge).
See the video below, or watch it on Vimeo

The grounds of Bellurgan are very easily accessible, only approx. 45 mins drive from the north side of Dublin, and pretty-much motorway the whole way up. Driving into the grounds, a steamroller was busy at work compatcing stone along the driveway, the sun had just come up and the morning mist was burning off nicely.

Out of the cars and onto the bikes – we picked-up the trail and got motoring. We were instantly very impressed with the amount of work that Tony Kelly and the Cuchulainn superman (and superkids) had put into the climb. The winding switchbacky climb which caused a few wheelspins in the wet conditions last year had been totally transformed into a traction-fest with the addition of stone/hardcore so all the power laid down was put into moving us up the hill.

A deceptive climb – it does not look steep but it certainly gave the legs a wake-up and swiftly ramped the heart-rates into the upper zones.

The two technical features added to the course will provide a time advantage for riders with the skills to pay the bills – the first – a nice steep drop has been solidly constructed, up to the lip, roll over off the brakes, then either over the rock wall or the ladder bridge. The second feature – a gap jump – is another solidly constructed affair – pretty much everyone nailed this one straight off – all you need to do is pick a nice pace up to it and just float over to the landing, the big sweeper berm catches you nicely and then you’re off again.

After that, there’s a huge amount of brilliantly flowy singletrack, with just enough rocky and rooty testers built in to keep the speed and flow while still testing your skill. This is without a doubt an exceptional course – reminiscent of Kilruddery (brief section of garlic scented singletrack!) and Glen of the Downs in places – the first snowdrops of the year had poked their little white heads out to see what all the fast fuss was about!
This is going to be a great race.
Register online now and get yourself up to it next week – see you all there!