My first 3 Ring Circus

What a beautiful day it was, the sun was shining, the temperature wasn’t too cold and I was about to enter my second ever mtb race. I was lucky (or unlucky) to have been granted free entry to the race given a mate at work won a free double pass when he entered and offered it to me, I thought what the hell sounds like fun and I will rope my usual riding buddy in to come. Unfortunately at last minute my mate was struck down the dreaded man flu and couldn’t compete so I would be riding solo.

I lined up on the start line with my trusty stumpy and a goal of 3 hours to finish (which may have been ambitious given my lack of training and the fact I had never ridden the course) and took off at the start to the sounds of the Madagascar sound track (polka dot afro, da da circus, that got stuck in my head!!!) and cheers from my 2 little boys and my wife (thanks so much for supporting me). I couldn’t believe the congestion at the start and was so conscious that I didn’t hit anyone else’s wheel, unfortunately not long in I saw my first incident of the day with a rider down only a few km’s in, he was getting lots of attention from the marshals (hopefully he was ok). I came through the blue loop ok and got cheers from my family as I went through transition.

The red loop was good fun, I loved the single trail and some of the techy sections around there, although I felt the width of my 720mm bars through some of those trees. The new sections with the berms and tight turns was brilliant fun but it was a definitely a traffic jam through that whole section. I struggled through the rest of the loop and then all of a sudden I started to hear the ring master and knew I was getting close to the end of the red loop, seeing my wife and boys again and getting some high fives really lifted my spirits, I also got to hear the finish of the race as the leaders came through just as I was in transition. It sounded like a fabulous finish and congrats to @antsonline coming in 2nd.

As I started the yellow loop I got passed by a medical car on the firetrail and thought that is not good, as I came around the corners ahead I saw another rider down in and in a bad way, the medics were looking after him and again I hope he was ok. I pushed through some more of the trail and rounded a corner to descend the hill before the halfway hill climb and saw another rider down, I and 2 other guys stopped to help her and her knee looked pretty bad, we called the marshals and one of the other guys stayed with her. I saw the woman at the medical centre after the race and somehow she managed to finish, such a big effort!!

I then struggled through the halfway hill climb and then pushed along the final firetrail to the finish. It was great to make it to the end in a reasonable time (at least for me), the course was definitely harder than I thought it would be.

Well done to all the nobmobers who raced on Sunday and a massive thank you to my wife for looking after my boys and supporting me through these events.

It was a great day out and I think I will have to go back and ride the red loop again when there is less traffic!!!