Ardpatrick man Oisin O Callaghan was racing overseas recently in round 2 of the
HSBC British National Downhill Series in the iconic World cup venue of Fort
William.
Despite a good start to the season he unfortunately missed Round 1 at Rheola,Wales with a suspected scaphoid injury and due to the type of injury he decided to not race Ixs in Maribor .
Practice
went well on the Friday,easing in to the track followed by proper practice on Saturday and race on Sunday. As anyone who has ridden Fort William will know it
has so many corners that vary from rock gardens to flat dusty corners.
Another red flag Sunday morning meant there was a 2 hour plus delay before seeding got underway with Oisin being informed to be at the start at the original seeding time .Oisin described his race run as unusually anxious with the concern about his wrists - add 40 km hr gusts and the flight sock horizontal in to the equation and it was an anxious race run with a few variables out of Oisins control .Thankfully Oisin stayed on the bike and managed to get 2nd place to a worthy grounded athlete and winner Denis Luffman from FMD Transition racing .
Content
with 2nd and any podium on Fort William is always worth treasuring so job done
this time and what lay ahead for the next 3 days was unforeseen -3 extra days with YT MOB Youth training
camp.This particular camp was for 15 and 16 years to get chosen to join the
junior ranks of Yt Mob WC team in 2020 .It involved 22 riders from all over
Europe who would be narrowed down to a final camp in Spain at the end of the
season.
3 days of timed runs and chainless runs with professional expertise from Angel Suaras of Yt Mob Race team on such a track and add the fact of 2 of Oisin was joining 2 of his closet friends on the European scene Luke Mumford and James Elliot would mean a great buzz and even us parents were envious of what they were experiencing.
It was very obvious from the start of the lads chemistry as they were chosen to do their own photo shoot with Isac paddock and filming with Brock Van Heel of Brock Knowmad development for video later in the year .All in all a fantastic week on the bikes and again a step closer to racing World Cups in 2020.
