After my visit to Morgan Hill I returned home to Ireland for a brief two days, before traveling to Madrid for the XC World Cup. I have always liked the Madrid course, simply because I believe it is definitely the most spectator friendly course, with the opportunity to see the action, if you are in the right place, about five to six times every lap.

Lene really impressed me, especially with her confidence off the line. It was so good to see Lene riding solo off the front of what is always a strong World Cup field. Lene’s 3rd place result show’s great consistency in what is surely a breakthrough year for the Norwegian who has been building gradually year on year.

The men’s race as always is fast in Madrid. Burry looked good in the early stages and I expected a good result, but later on you could see that the South African wasn’t firing on all 10 cyclinders! He did so well and rode so cleverly at the end to win the U23 and close points in the overall World Cup Rankings.

Todd must look back positively on his result, which saw him in the top 10 at one point on board his Specialized S Works HT 29er. Bearing in mind he started in 40th position on the grid, I am sure Todd will build on this.

Susi has had a tough start to the year. Things just haven’t knitted together as they normally would. He was carrying a very bad chest cold into this race, with flu like symptoms, but still managed to place 11th, which is commendable.

After Madrid I have been back in Ireland, spending time with family. The weather is fantastic, which is great given the unpredictability of the Irish Skies! I have been to many parts of the World, but Ireland on days like we have been experiencing is my number one place for road biking. My Specialized S Works Tarmac SL2 has been out on the Irish Roads daily.

While in Ireland I also watched TriAthy, a triathlon, which hosted a field of 2500 participants. Given that Ireland has just 4.2 million people, this represents a massive attendance for any sporting event. I had no itch to be in there in the thick of the action, but I really enjoyed watching!