If the soup had been ready at ten o’clock it would have been tempting to just sit in the sun and soak up the warmth. Graham Cooper not only let us use his place, but he also turned on a cracker of a day despite his need for lots more rain.
Amongst the 41 riders taking part, there was a very serious 4 year old, and a very competitive 70 year old, plus the usual array all ages in between.
Justin set out two courses and included a new piece of single track, which proved to be very popular. Race brief said that riders could mix and match the courses so lap times could be misleading. I did hear of riders repeatedly lapping the awesome single track section and it is good to know that despite the competitive nature of the sport, it can also be used purely for fun without encroaching on those who want to race.
First to complete lap 1 were the Morrison ladies who zipped around the short course in pretty quick time. These guys were also on hand at the end of their second lap to assist a distressed young Billy who had come a cropper on the road and was leaking blood and tears. Hope Billy gets over his wee drama and comes back for more showing his battle scars.
At the front of the field Josh and Khan were neck and neck after the first circuit with Jeremy not far behind struggling with gearbox problems. Chef/mechanic Justin helped to get him flying again after a short pit stop. Josh put in a very quick second lap to open up a wee gap on Khan while Jeremy was trying to make up for lost time in third place. These three were pretty focused and flew through the start finish to go for a third lap. At the end of the day the gap between first and third was less than a minute with some serious effort from Khan and Jeremy trying in vain to close down Josh.
Mean time amongst the two lappers, the two Roberts, Kennedy and Miller, were swapping bikes mid course without swapping race numbers. Their lap times are a best guess and probably way out, which is the usual result when old timers get confused.
Soup was pretty good though thanks to David, it was thick enough to make sandwiches eh Justin ! All in all a great morning. Don’t forget the big double weekender next week with the “Eliminator” on Saturday at the MTB Park and Kevin’s Epic on Sunday at Dumgree. Get your entries in to BikeFit before Thursdays deadline.