Woodhill II: The Race

After riding to the race I still a bit of work left to do. Pick a camp site, set up tent, pick another camp site after some bloke puts his generator 3m away, set up tent, change bike from fully loaded tourer to 29r racing rig, eat, etc.
The camp site was beautiful - in a secluded valley just below the pine forest we were to race in. Grass everywhere with lots of music and food.
Below: Yoda the singlespeed.
A crepery 50m from my tent, not bad! The french guy that ran this setup cursed violently and frequently all weekend but was otherwise quite agreeable.
The mark of a bike race - the line of Port-a-loos.
The race was nominally a 12 hr race which started at 10:30am; I raced the 6 hour version that started at 4:30pm. So even after riding out from Auckland and getting my gear situated I had about 2 hours to sit around wondering why I was racing in the first place. Too late! 4:30 and the race gets underway with a short (100m) run past streaking little girls. Then up into the trees, past a few "stunts" you could opt for (wood tracks for jumping and breaking bones), and into some of the sweetest forest single track I've ever ridden (think Flagstaff on Valium). I kept up a decent pace for 4 laps before losing my will. I think that I finished 7 laps, two at night. Fantastic.

A warning however, during the race, long after I had given up on racing, I heard from behind that a guy's light was out. So I pulled over and waited by a gate for him to pass so I could offer my light. He was thrilled but as he dismounted he popped his tire on a loose hook on the gate. Moral: you might as well try to evolve cat-like night vision because (as the guy exclaimed) "when it rains it pours".

It started to rain that night, a light rain, certainly not a pour!