I was certainly underdone going in and a friend reassured me that single track and mountain air would get me through, and so it was.

It was a tough red ring, LOTS more single track but largely great fun. I was stuck in traffic for most of it, (made me feel faster). My recent upgrade to XT brakes made a fantastic difference. Everyone I was following seemed to continually lock the rear wheel, but the XTs are so subtle I rarely if ever had a lock up. A soft rear tyre slowed the last section a bit and my speedy transition plan, lost a few minutes pumping it up.