Cycleworld Dunedin CX Series Race 2

The local Cyclocross season was already one race ahead of me and my enthusiasm was low.

Enter Big Gav, also from Wanaka, who said he would collect me on Saturday and “be ready”

Luckily he hadn’t prepared a playlist in the style of “As Good As It Gets” and we arrived in Dunners 3 hours later.

I had quietly observed him devour a packet of Jet Planes single handedly and wondered what else he was on?
So much potential for crass blokey humour as this point.

I stayed in Mosgiel. The rain was horizontal.

Gav was in the North end of Dunedin where the street lights were still on mid morning.

Perfect biking weather.

Tomahawk is on the East Coast and comparatively sheltered.

Cycleworld had set up a brilliant course around the sports grounds with a road section to join it back together – after we’d splashed through the estuary.

31 riders started, 30 finished. One hit the road and then tried to hit the rider that he hit.

Around 50 mins later Scott Lyttle passed me for the second time, timing couldn’t have been better as that meant just one more lap.

I was pretty cooked so that was a blessing – except the timing lady insisted it wasn’t the bell lap….my new friend Nick and I discussed the ramifications of this and trundled around for one more and maybe one more.

Gav and Tristan Lawrence passed us just short of the finish line for 2^nd & 3^rd.

Nick and I thought we were owed an extra lap so we used that as a warm down and swapped stories; he’d watched the first race of the series the week before and stepped up this week for a ride.

Post race smack talk had rumours circulating of an altercation during the race.

 It turned out it was just like Days of Thunder : “rubbings racing boy” except it had escalated to Fight Club.

Good times.

Our trip home was looking low key, just 3 hours, until we hit Clyde. Rather big rocks had hit the road and closed it prior to our arrival and wasn’t reopening till the next morning.

Two options, no three presented themselves.

1)      Find beer and consider next move.

2)      Ring Bluebird Malcolm and invite ourselves round for the night.

“Gidday it’s Malcolm here, super busy right now, please leave a message”

3)      Go cross country up and over the hill to Bannockburn was what we tried. Last time up that hill was for downhill shuttles in a big 4WD – we were in a Subaru Outback with a river running down the track towards us.

Up the top things got progressively worse; the puddles bigger and deeper. We turned back when the water was over Gav’s gummies.

Another call and a few beers later had us, well me, snoring my way thru a forest all night long.

Driving home next day you couldn’t see any sign of the rock fall.

Oh well, no matter. Happy Birthday Gavin.

16 June 2013