“Biking Blitz” early season MTB XC series to kick off next Sunday

The second edition of the

www.biking.ie ‘Biking Blitz’ kicks off next Sunday, February 19^th, with four events in total, in counties Wicklow, Limerick, Galway and Dublin.

The events are all a fortnight apart and cater for age groups from U8s to elite seniors.

Organiser Niall Davis told stickybottle that while the series will feature some tough racing, some of the events are an ideal opportunity for those new to the game to try their hand at racing.

“There are two senior categories to choose from. The first event of the series is in Ballinastoe Woods, where the ‘baggy shorts’ category – which is ideal for beginners - will tackle a full lap of the 14km mountain bike trail. Then for the more experienced riders there’s the ‘super pro’ category, where the more experienced riders will do two full laps of Ballinastoe, measuring 28km in total.”

“There’ll be an overall series winner; we’ll be taking the best three results from any four rounds. We’re using mountain bike trail centres for all four events so that should guarantee a fast flowing course no matter what the weather conditions are like. We’ve lots of great prizes up for grabs too so we’re hoping lots of people will saddle up irrespective of age or experience.”

Prizes on offer include a range of Columbia sportswear, a Trek mountain bike and a cash prize fund of €1,000 from Harry’s Bikes.

“We’re limited to taking 300 riders so people would need to get in early,” said Davis.

All four days of racing begin at 10.30am when the first of the underage programme – from U8s to U16s – gets underway. The programme of junior and two senior events gets underway at 1pm.