After having rescheduled this event from April after a somewhat biblical torrent of rain, we tried to appease the weather deity with offers of beer and chocolate feet but alas it would seem to be in vain. The Newcastle region has received over 70mm of rain in the past 4 days and a HUGE dump is expected tomorrow. Sunday of course is expected to be mostly fine and sunny, but that won’t help the track, so needless to say we’re going to postpone the event AGAIN!
The decision hasn’t been made lightly. We’ve been talking with the Club, other locals, and monitoring three different weather sites, for the past week now. Check out the rainfall for Cooranbong. While the forecast was gradually improving, this morning’s forecast sees the weather focusing most of its energy on Friday with 40-80mm predicted in the region. The access road into Awaba is tricky when wet and currently has a river running across it which will probably mean that most 2WD cars won’t make it in. And needless to say, the dunny truck and other services who were booked to deliver on Friday would have no chance of getting in. The track has several sections that will be currently under water. Even with possible fine weather starting from lunchtime on Saturday, it’s just not gonna dry out. Rider safety & enjoyment are paramount to us, and knowing how much effort and time the Club puts into that track, there’s no way we want to be responsible for any potential damage.
As there’s almost 500 of you registered and you’re probably all gagging to do the event we’re going to reschedule, but as there is only one month of the year left and summer is on its way, our choices for dates to reschedule are kinda limited. We’ve settled on Sunday 18 December which will most likely be difficult for some but great for others, so we sincerely apologise if that that date is going to put your Christmas present buying schedule in to a tailspin, but it’s the best we can do with the limited options we have got.
Also if the 500 or so beers we’ve bought for you sit here over the Xmas period … well I don’t think we could be blamed if most of them ‘disappear’ so the sooner we get the Series wrapped up the more likely you’ll get to taste our specially made Enduro Lager and we won’t have to sign up for AA.
The long range rainfall prediction is also looking good for that date (fingers and legs crossed): http://www.
As you’d be aware and was the case with the previous rescheduling, your team or solo entry will be automatically rolled forward to the new date on 18 December and as per the T&C’s that you read before you signed up there’s no refunds or transfers to future events, but you can transfer your entry to another rider or team. Check out the information on the web to see how to do this. We’ll need to receive all changes by midnight on Wednesday 14 December so please let us know sooner than later.
BUT … given the event had sold out, we may well receive interest from new riders for the new date. So, if you or your team is unable to attend on 18 December, send us an email with the details and we’ll try to fill the spot and transfer the money to you. If you have previously contacted us, then obviously your availability for this new date may be different so please contact us again so we can be sure that your entry is still available.
So put December 18 in your diary and prepare for the best Xmas party ever, Santa has confirmed he’s now racing (sans Reindeer!) as a warm up event for his Christmas marathon, though he is a singlespeeder which is a little sus … There will also be beer, chocolate, good tunes (no Xmas musak!), a truly ludicrous amount of prizes to give away and of course 8 ¼ hours of Awaba’s fine singletrack, the best present a mountain biker could ever have, so start the celebrations early with us on 18 December!