The Christmas Rush - Saturday 3rd December

Hello all,

As some of you may know, I, along with Bjoren have arranged a sort of race for this Saturday (3 December). We have named it 'Christmas Rush'

Venue and Time
The venue will be the MAD race circuit. This is located nearby the masts on the top of 3 Rock Mountain. It is a well tested circuit and we expect some very close racing on it. The first half of the course is a rocky descent which leads into a bermed forest descent and then a climb back to the start. The race will be starting at 11.30am sharp. We cannot guarantee that you will be allowed to race if you are late. We will be heading up for a practice lap an identifying any parts of the course that might be hard for 11.00am. We will be going from the Yellow House Pub at 10.00am or alternatively you can meet us in Ticknock carpark for 10.30am. We advise that you meet us at the Yellow House as it is more fun to descend the whole Boneshaker to Stepaside road when we are finished.

Format
We have a designed a fairly original race format to keep everybody interested, from the complete beginners to the seasoned racers. We will be setting people off in teams of two. We hope to be able to pair an experienced racer with a less experience rider or beginner. The qualities that will be taken into consideration will be: descending ability, climbing ability and sense of the course. We hope to have the teams as even as possible to make for some great racing. The team of two people will have to finish within ten seconds of each other or there will be a time penalty of five seconds for every ten seconds you are ahead of your partner. Each team will be timed and the times will be given to you at the end of the day.

Who is this for?
We cannot stress enough how this is for EVERYBODY. It will not work if only racers show up as it will be unfair. We want as many beginners as possible. I have made all the more experienced riders to promise to be nice and not push you harder than you want to be.

Race Fees
Put simply, there are no fees of any kind. You do not need a license either. We have done this to get as high numbers as possible.

If this ‘Christmas Rush’ is a success, there will be a possibility of another one in the near future. Feel free to contact me (Steve) on any details of the race via stephen_scrivener@yahoo.co.uk or 0861653925.

Regards,
Steve and Bjoren

Saturday 26th November 2005

From the keyboard of Sean........

Hi all,
firstly, sorry about the short notice on this one, the week seems to have passed me by.
This Saturday MAD will have a short and easy ride towards the Hellfire Club and Massies Wood. Everyone is welcome on this ride, especially beginners.
You will need a helmet, water, food and especially important, warm clothes!
Meet at the Yellow House, Rathfarnham at 10am.
As always, mail back to this address or call or text 086 3354576 if you would like more info or directions or a even friendly chat.

See you Saturday,
Sean

Alternate to Cyclocross Race Sunday 27th

good evening folks,
Since Morgan, Paddy, Mick, Sean and possibly Bjoern are racing, working, or somewhere else, i'm going to take a spin from the Yellow House at 10am on Sunday morning.

I'm planning on going up through Kilmashogue following parts of the Wicklow Way and then down the woca wocas then over to Prince Willies.....and then we can decide to go somewhere else afterwards depending on how everyone is feeling!

So in summary........10 am Yellow House on Sunday.
see you all there!
Nigel,
087 9335 403

November Ride Schedule

Date	Destination	Meeting Place	Contact
Saturday 5-Nov-05	All weather ride, suitable for everyone	Yellow House, 10am or Ticknock car park 10.45am	Bjoern
Sunday 6-Nov-05	Ride of mystery	Yellow House, 10am	MAD
Friday 11-Nov-05	MAD AGM	MAD HQ	The Committee
Saturday 12-Nov-05	MTB Commission AGM	2pm-5pm, The Munster Suite, Red Cow Inn Conference Center, Naas Road, Dublin 12
Sunday 13-Nov-05
Wednesday 16-Nov-05	A night ride. In the dark.	Ticknock car park, 7pm	Nigel
Saturday 19-Nov-05	Sean's casual friendly ride - Kilmashogue and the Wocawocas	Yellow House 10am	Sean
Sunday 20-Nov-05	Three Rock and Leadmines at a steady pace - a bit faster than our beginners spins but nothing hectic.	Yellow House 10am, Ticknock 10.30am	Morgan
Saturday 26-Nov-05	Massies and Hellfire - easy spin	Yellow House, 10am	Sean
Sunday 27-Nov-05	Cyclocross race - Tymon Classic	Race venue 11am	The official poster
Sunday 27-Nov-05	Prince Willies, and Cloon if you're lucky	Yellow House, 10am	Nigel

It's like mountainbiking, only different

Are you overwhelmed by competitive urges? Are you missing mtb racing now that winter's here? Want to get some training in before the MAD Club Champs? Then try Team WORC's first Tymon Cyclo Cross Classic race. This event takes place on Sunday November 27th in Tymon Park, Tallaght. MTBs are welcome. It should be a bit of fun, and you can do your Christmas shopping in the Cycle Superstore afterwards. What is cyclocross?

AGM

Thanks to everybody who made it along to the AGM last Friday night. Ironically, it was the first meeting this year where the beer was free, and also the first where no beer was consumed...

The committee remains the same for 2006:
Chairperson : Morgan O'Connell
Secretary : Mick O'Dowd
Treasurer : Paddy O'Brien

MAD has also created the role of a ride leader, thanks to Nigel Shekleton, Sean Downey and Bjorn Pils agreeing to take on this responsibility. We are not limited to just three ride leaders, please contact Mick if you're interested in taking up the challenge, or finding out more.

There will be a more formal structure to the club to facilitate the growth we plan in 2006. This will have a few implications for everybody: we'll expect people to actually sign up as members after three spins, it will no longer be acceptable to simply tag along indefinitely. Membership forms will be available on all spins, so there'll be plenty of opportunity to join.

Full details of the AGM will be distributed to all members during the week.

Sundays report

Cracking day on sunday, wiht lovely weather, apart from the cold, strong wind. Nigel, Sean, Raul, Alexandre, Shane and myself headed up towards ticknock and then on up through the forest to the boneshaker. At this point poor Shane realized that 3 months of no exercise really takes its toll and decided to head for home with a severe case of the jelly legs. The rest of us then headed up the boneshaker to the masts, onwards towards fairy castle turning right towards Kilmashogue halfway up. Then along the side of two rock and out onto the Woca Wocas for some good old fashioned high speed jumpy fun. When we reached the road at the bottom we make an executive decision that the road home from Enniskerry would be no fun in that wind and so headed off right till we got to tibradden and did a few tracks there before heading off into cruagh wiht a little stream crossing that left us all wiht wet feet (Raul nearly fell in, and Alex went over the bars on his way across!). A few muddly tracks in Cruagh later and Seans bike was left standing artistically on its handlebars as he tumbled over them on the drop into the carpark. My kingdom for a camera!

Next we headed for masseys for a few jumps and drops where comedy/style moment of the day went to Alex who went over the bars at the top of one drop, yet somehow managed to land on his feet and continue running the rest of the way down! Very impressive composure give that the rest of us normally land on our faces!

All in all a great day out with no rain, injuries or breakages to report.

Paddy

Sunday 6th November

Hey all,

Due to the usual inability to decide beforehand, we're continuing the trend of having a magical mytery tour on sunday. The only decision made so far is that we're meeting at the yellow house at 10am and will take it from there.

Bring enough food and water to keep you goign for the day in case we decide to make it a long trip, or even in case in just turns into a long trip! Either way there should be opportunities to turn for home at various points along the way if you get tired or don;t have the time for a full days ride.

Hope to see lots of you there. This should also see the return of the man known by some as Shane (well ..known by all as Shane actually). He'll have many tales to tell of hospital waiting rooms, stitches and also frightening stuff about solicitors fees when moving house.

Paddy

Saturday 5th Nov Spin

Hey everybody,

There will be a Saturday spin on the 5th of November! Steve and Bjoern
will lead a hopefully big group!

If its rainy, we will just do a small spin, staying in the forests as
much as possible. The spin is suitable for everyone! We really would
like to have everybody out this saturday,so that we can show the weather
and the mountains, that it cant stop MADmtb! If the weather is nice,
warm or just not wet, we will go up to fairy castle and decide how
adventurous we are feeling from there. This will be great fun! Remember
the day, when Steve got stuck into a deep Mud hole!

Meeting will be as usual 10 am at the yellow house or 10:45 ticknock car
park, for those people with heavy kona bikes ;-)

For any Questions or a chat you can contact Bjoern 087 6918087

Looking forward to see you ALL out there,

Steve and Bjoern