Team Wideopenmag’s Kelan Grant is the 2017 Irish National Enduro Champion!
It’s been a busy couple of weeks here at Wideopen with Eurobike madness … and we wanted to make sure that one particular bit of news didn’t pass us by.
Yep, Team Wideopenmag’s Irish superstar Kelan Grant just won the Irish National elite enduro title at Carrick, Co. Wicklow.
Kelan has had a killer season with a top result at the Megavalanche, a win at the Ard Rock Enduro … and now a National title on home turf to add to the trophy cabinet.
Kelan told us:
It was good to get back to Wicklow. It’s a mountain that’s no stranger to the world’s fastest mountain bikers and was host of the Enduro World Series forthree years running now. It’s deal for a championship race.
We had a slightly shorter route than the Enduro World Series races with a chilled day of practice on the Saturday. I did one full lap of the course and that was plenty to get the lines dialled in.
Local hero and reigning Irish champion Greg Callaghan was absent from the race, meaning the title was up for grabs.
On Sunday morning, the early riders were treated to 6 stages in prime conditions. It wasn’t until 12 o’clock when the pro men left the pits that the heavens opened. A small drizzle turned into constant rain and I did nothing but laugh trying to keep the bike straight on the slime that is Carrick dirt.
Stages one to four where some of the hardest to judge and the unpredictable conditions meant that sticking to race lines was nearly impossible. Slow and steady whilst keeping traction up was key!
I got round in good pace, kept it upright and crossed the line to take the elite win. I couldn’t be happier with how the weekend went and to win the 2017 Irish National title is brilliant.
Thanks again to the sponsors and to the Gravity Enduro team for putting on a cracking event!
Thanks as always to our awesome sponsors:
Photos thanks to Ian Lean and Trev Worsey.
