Night racing – that takes me back. Although there are plenty of opportunities to do it, I just don’t ride my mountain bike at night anymore. In fact, the last time I pedalled in anger under lights was at the Sydney 24 hour race in 2006.
After this mornings dismal show in the TT, I was pretty apathetic about this evenings race. A big glass of red wine and The Might Boosh helped for a while. But then it was time for uber-caffeination and an old Essential Mix to try to fire up.
The past couple of days have been pretty warm in Alice Springs. And Stage 6 tonight was no different. It was over 21 degrees while we waited on the start line. The AC/DC was pumping (wrong track though, no Highway to Hell), I was second row, planted on Aiden Lefmanns wheel.
None of this lasted. We rode away from the tunes, and in the shuffle to not hit the photographer in the middle of the track I ended up a fair way back. Through the soft mud on the edge of the golf course, I almost ignored Nick Boths advice to ‘Stay upright boys!’ and sent my left knee into my shifter, moving it to a less convenient location.
Along the edge of the golf course, then a hard left into the water pipe climb. That had things mostly strung out. Especially for us further down the bell curve. The fast singletrack was great, and I was happily following Glenn Stewarts wheel. He chose a good line, and I followed closely enough, riding a clearly less optimal line. Passing opportunities here were pretty much non-existent. The trail was fast, and the grass at the side about knee to thigh high. The only real option to let someone by was to pull off into the grass (and hiddne jagged rocks). Or they could boost up through said grass and rocks. Needless to say, it should be obvious what people expected Glenn and I to do.
We crept pretty hard through the tech bits, but drove it home to the finish, with Warren Burgess in tow. He had settled down a bit and realised trying to find somewhere to let him by was reasonably pointless.
In the end we were about one or two minutes slower than the day time. Not bad.
The front group essentially rode tempo, with word of a few singletrack shenanigans and secret lines coming into play. In the end, it still came down to a sprint, with Andy Blair taking it.
Jess Douglas took the women’s win I believe, with Anna Beck suffering a bad fall. By the sounds of it she wasn’t the only one. There was a bit of carnage out there, both mechanical and physical. The stories will be out tomorrow morning no doubt!