huka xl - 29 nov 08

78k of almost only single track – what a primo race course!!

I arrived at the start about 20min before race start and the start area was pretty full already – luckily I was able to sneak to the front and found some familiar faces like Mike and Tim and Budgy, so it was a nice relaxed start, we pretty much chatted away till the gun went off. The very first bit was on the road but we hit the single track pretty much right away and then rode trail after trail and it just didn’t seem to end! It was awesome! I had no idea where the course was going – other then that we were eventually going to get to the dam and then take the Rotary track back to Taupo. It was cool to not know what to expect and do trails that I hadn’t done for ages or never done at all. I had no idea were the other girls where while I was riding along as the course keeps winding along but I thought I had an ok lead so I just enjoyed the ride and tried not to slow down too much. When we hit Taupo I though ‘sweet we are there’ (I was a bit tired by then and was looking forward to the finish line) but the race didn’t quite finish then – we were lead back into some more tight single track that I had no idea it existed and growled up some more steep rises before we finally ended up in the park close to the finish line and … yes crossed the line to win the first Huka xl race. It was a very cool race because the course was so awesome, I will do it again for sure!