Nukeproof Junior team rider Dan Sheridan competed in the Irish National DH Champs last weekend. Current holder of the Under16 title, Dan moved into the Junior category with high hopes for the win - here's his round-up.
Irish champs – biggest race of the year in Ireland and defiantly the race I wanted to win the most this season.
Held in Carrick, Co. Wicklow, not too far from me and is defiantly my favourite Irish race track, which is flat out and rough with minimal pedalling.
We arrived Saturday morning and set about getting ready. Pit set up, sign on and get the bike ready. Bike mods consisted of going down 20mm in bar length to 740 compared to the 760s ive been using on the WC tracks , Schwalbe ‘Big Betty’ tyres front and rear with quite a hard tyre pressure in the back due to the big puncturing rock gardens on track and finally a bit less HSC in the shock.
I got 5 practice runs in on Saturday and was having so much fun smashing runs with Daniel Wolfe (shown in headcam below!), felt up to speed and confident for race day.
Sunday morning I smashed out another 2 runs with the D-MAN himself with a near perfect final run. I headed back to the camper to rest up for seeding….
I planned on doing a cruiser run in seeding as I didn’t want to be last off for the finals, had a clean run which was actually quite fast as its tough to go slow on the high speed course! Anyway I came down and went into 1st place by 2 seconds, which although wasn’t what I wanted, was quite reassuring. My time was 3rd in Elites for seeding, only 2 seconds from fastest time of the day.
Quick power nap before finals and I went up for my run. I set off real fast out of the gate and nailed the top section, getting a bit loose after sprinting off the first rock drop. Then just after the top rocky section my front wheel went flat and I knew instantly my run was over. Nothing to do except roll down to the finish….
Huge disappointment but not much I could do.
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