Can't stop, Hanmer time!

First up sorry for the terrible terrible pun, its almost as bad as the infamous redrocks blown seal joke.

I've always been a big fan of racing of induro racing in Hanmer so as always was looking forward to it. Thinking way back to 2005 it was one of my first races in a mixed team with the foxy Daydreamer. I don't want to spread gossip so all I will say is we were young, impressionable, it was cold and the tent we had was small. It was also my first solo 12 hr back in 2006 and possibly the coldest, wettest 6hr in 2008.

Back to the future, the race has been taken over by the Hanmer mtb club and they had put on a great course that could be enjoyed by all. While there was nothing technical it still had enough in it to keep it interesting for more experienced riders. Being the unorganised punter I am at the last minute I realised my bike was virtually un-rideable so I owe a big thanks to Dr Bike for sorting the Titus out. With f all notice he serviced my forks, tuned my gears, rebuilt my rear hub and dealt to a severe case of nipple failure (which up until now I thought only happened to Slacky at Karapoti).

The day dawned frosty and cold. We were glad for our warm cabin complete with fire and I'm sure we had a much warmer night than the hardy people who had camped overnight onsite. We set up camp next to Tinkerbell's tent mansion and Mrs K was glad the sun was shining after our last cold and shelterless experience in Hanmer. Was great to see that Bushlove's reputation is spreading in the South, Tinkerbell even referred to me in her blog as "one of the legendary racers of the mighty Bushlove Racing Team"

With the 4 and 8 hr starting together the pace was hot from the start especially from the in form Jeremy Inglis who was riding the solo short course. There was no way I was keeping up with him so after the first lap I settled into having a good battle with Andy Reid on his Stigmata cross bike. It was good fun doing my best keeping up with him on the flat faster sections while trying to drop him on the downhills. It must have been pretty brutal going though, as after 5-6 laps he had to change to a bike with suspension.
I felt like I was riding well at this stage opening up a handy lead of at least a few minutes. By lap 10 it had all started to unravel (I even got stung by a bee!) and my lead had nearly disappeared. Not being used to riding more than 20 minutes at a time my back started killing me although some painkillers (sans vodka as I'm no singlespeeder) courtesy of Ryda and Jude helped.

By lap 11 Oli easily passed me and rode off. Once the painkillers kicked in I started to feel much improved and really enjoyed the last few laps. In the end I finished 2nd a few minutes behind Oli but a lap up on 3rd.

Overall it was a well run race and great value too. It was a very good idea have it based out of the Forest Camp again (a location much better for spectators) - I did miss Pizzacarto though.

Thanks to Sarah for being race coordinator extraordinaire. She did a great job organising all the details, feeding me and generally being winsome. Thanks also to Craig, Rebakah and all the Singletrack Christchurch crew making the day so enjoyable.

Post race the Titus returned to its always intended singlespeed state for my next race. All going well I even hope to have a special treat for the throngs of bushlove fans.