Over the past two years, siblings Jonathan and Leah Maunsell from Wallstown, Castletownroche, have been making waves in the cycling world and as 'Team Maunsell', the duo are hoping to continue making their way up the ranks in both national and international competitions and trails.

Cycling up and down mountains is the stuff of nightmares for many, but for Team Maunsell, this is the stuff of dreams and Gravity Enduro racing could help them to make their name on the global stage.

Their father Cieran taught both of them to cycle at a very young age and he told The Avondhu that they were cycling as soon 'as they could stand', while their mother Caroline supports them at every event.

Cieran added that they wouldn't be able to compete at the level they are at without their sponsors.

Leah is just 14 and she has achieved so much over the past two years and now has her sights set on the 2020 Olympics, to compete in XC Mountain Biking.

Twenty-year-old Jonathan who works in the Kilfinane Outdoor Education Centre would have bought his first bike from SuperValu coupons and he said that he would have only casually cycled from the age of 14-18.

"I had done a bit of cross country cycling and I did a few downhill races when I was 17, but I never placed and it was just for the craic.

"Then a few of us started getting together and we formed Team Ballyhoura Mountain Biking Club. It started out with about 8 of us and now there are more than 50 members," Jonathan said.

He explained that with endurance cycling, it is the gravity of the cycles that appeals to young people and that physically, it is very hard to make the climb up the mountain and then have the endurance to go back down.

In 2011, Jonathan was working in a surf school to buy himself a bike and he was working so much that he couldn't ride much, so when he took to the trails with his new bike, he decided to put more of himself into the sport.

While Jonathan had a pretty blase attitude to the cycling in his younger years, they could all see that Leah had a natural flair for it and she got her first racing bike for her 11th birthday, but was too young to compete.

"It seemed to come really natural to her - we all have to learn, but it just happened for Leah," Cieran said.

She won her first event after getting that first bike in an Under 12 event. As she progressed, Leah would have been riding against women who were more than twice her age and much more experienced on the bike.

Both Leah and Jonathan had sporting highlight moments in 2013. For Leah, it was being selected to take part in the European MTB Youth Championships in August 2013, when she got to race on the Alps while for Jonathan, it was winning the senior Irish Downhill event, the final event of the season, at a time when he entered for the fun of the event, rather than for the victory.

"I thought the season was over at the end of September and there were two rounds left in the Irish Downhill Series, so I said I'd go along for the craic, like an end of season wind down. I had no expectations and I wasn't taking the weekend seriously from a competition point of view," Jonathan said, reflecting on his win as overall downhill champion. 

"Mountain biking for me is so much more than racing - it's an exploration, usually me and the dog out on the mountain," Jonathan said, capturing his love for the sport in words.

Trying to train for the Alps was a huge challenge for Leah, as the Maunsell family scrambled around Ireland, looking for the steepest climbs to train on, but nothing compared to the mountain when they got there.

"When we got there, anything we'd done was baby stuff compared to what was over there and the skills people had were amazing," Leah said.

"We had no idea what we were facing," her father added.

The heat was also something that Leah had to contend with, saying it was almost unbearable just standing there, not to mind when she got on the bike. At home, she was used to cycling in wet, windy, slippy and mucky conditions, but over there, she had to contend with the altitude, heat and dust.

Overall, Leah placed at 21st, but her best result on any given day in Austria was coming 12th, but she added that nobody who doesn't live at the foot of the Alps has ever won that event.

There would be much less girls in the sport and this is something Leah would like to see changing. For instance, at the Gravity Enduro Series, there would have been 350 entrants and only around 20 would have been girls.

2012 held the first year of good positions for Jonathan and his results were astonishing for someone who had just set themselves the goal of placing in the top ten. He managed to rank in first, second or third place in all events in 2012 and 2013.

For Team Maunsell, their interest in the sport peaked at the right time, as Ireland had it's first Gravity Enduro Series in 2012 and this was completely different to cross country, which people had dabbled in before.

Breaking Gravity Enduro down into layman's terms, Jonathan said that there would be between four and six stages in every round and they would last up to 8 minutes, but the bike you have has to be capable of going really really fast downhill and pedalling back up the mountain.

In many sports, athletes live by strict exercise, diet and training regimes, but the Maunsells enjoy the sport for what it is and don't take it too seriously.

"We don't have a strict regime, we still get the milage and skills in, but it's fun and more casually done rather than structured," Cieran, who helps with his kids' training, said.

"In saying that, it doesn't all happen on race day. A lot of it is to really enjoy it and wanting to do it - your body can surprise you in what it can do when you want it to. Down the line, there's plenty of time to get serious," he added.

Looking ahead to next year, Jonathan hopes to do the full Irish series and place in the top 3 again, do more international races and go racing in Europe. His overall aim is to make a career out of what he loves.

"I just want to do anything to do with mountain biking. I will do this for the rest of my life if I can," he said.

Meanwhile, Leah hopes to return to the European event in the U17 category, race in the other events around Ireland and gradually work towards the Olympics in 2020.

Leah also keeps a fantastic blog and those who are interested in following her journey to the Olympics can do by checking out http://leahmaunsell.wordpress.com/. The siblings are exploring the option of having a joint blog to track their progress.

SPONSORS

2013 would not have been what it was for the Maunsell duo were it not for their sponsors:

• MBW/Kona Ireland Race Team.
• Dare 2b - Welcome to our Mountain.
• Moove Components.
• B2A Gym.

In 2014, they are looking forward to another year of competing, cycling and hopefully putting a few more victories under their saddles and these are their sponsors for 2014 so far:

• Dare 2b - Welcome to our Mountain.
• Kona Bikes.
• Moove Components.
• MBW Bike Shop.
• Mechanic Declan Roche.

JONATHAN'S SUCCESS ON THE TRAILS

• In 2012, he came 1st in the Munster XC Series Overall Mens baggy shorts category.
• He came 3rd in the 2012 Irish Gravity Enduro Series Overall Mens 16-29 category.
• In Round 1, he came 2nd and in Round 2, he came 2nd and took 1st place in Round 3 in Munster Enduro series 2013.
• In 2013, Jonathan came 3rd overall in the Irish Gravity Enduro Series Overall Pro Men. In Round 2 of this series in Ballyhoura, he came 3rd on the day in the Pro Men and took 5th place at the Gravity Enduro National championships in Wicklow.
• The same year, he took 2nd place in the Bluegrass International Tour (Gravity Enduro race) at Ballyhoura in the Pro Men category.
• He also came first in Fairymount DH Farm, Roscrea to become Senior Irish Downhill National Champion 2013.

LEAH'S SUCCESS ON THE TRAILS

• In August 2013, Leah took part in the European Youth MTB Championships in Austria, taking 21st position overall and her highlight there was taking 12th position in Under 15 girls on day four. 
• In the XC National Point Series 2012/2013, Leah came first in the Under 14 girls in every round, claiming overall first position. 
• During the Gravity Enduro Series in Ireland 2013, Leah came first in Round 2 of Pro Women in Ballyhoura, she came second in Round 3 in Ticknock in Dublin in Pro Women, second in Round 4 in Djouce Woods in Wicklow in Pro Women and first again in the women's category in the Bluegrass International Enduro tour in Ballyhoura.
• During the Kinetica Munster XC Championships 2012/2013, Leah came first overall, with first positions in every Under 14 girls event and first in six Ladies events. 
• Similarly, in the Biking.ie Blitz in 2012 and 2013, Leah came first in three Under 14 girls events, 1st in one mixed Under 14 event, second in a mixed Under 14 event and first in four Ladies events. 
• Finally, for 2013, Leah came first in the Bluegrass International Enduro Tour 2013 in Ballyhoura in the Ladies event. 

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