It wasn't me, honestly officer!

The officer 6 hour saw a pile of Baum riders (that's right the collective pronoun for Baum riders is a pile) descend for a day of tough climbs and wickedly fast descents. Ryan and David raced together while Jim and I recruited independent contractors to make for 3 teams in the 2 man category. Steve Clausen made the long trip with his brand new Cubano to race in mixed pairs.

The track was short and fast, climbs were steep and loose and the descents rode best when you felt right on the edge of control. This was one course that seemed to reward an aggressive style and short, hard, precise braking before laying into the loud pedal(s) once again.

It took us some time to find the mid race results, in fact it was within the final two hours that we discovered that Jim and Erin were holding 2nd, Ashley and myself 3rd and Ryan and David were in 7th. With only 24 minutes to go Ryan and David had climbed to 5th and Ryan headed out on his final lap, ~20 seconds later Ashley came through to send me out again, I screamed back at Ashm to stay in his cycling kit, I love hurting myself to make a team mate go out again. I was worried that Erin was due in soon and Jim would be right on my tail. I tried to block the thought of 3 Baum riders chasing each other through the twisties, and concentrated on the one in front, Ryan.

I caught Ryan just before 'heartbreak hill', and he stuck with me until the trail pointed downhill and got rough. Twice during the remaining few ks Ryan, an unstoppable climbing force, bridged back to my wheel on hills. The effort to beat each other lead to our fastest laps of the day. I crossed the line to see Ashley dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, I’d lapped in 23.09 (14 seconds of the race to spare) and while our 3rd place was secure I still demanded he changed to go out again. Sadly he was too comfortable in civies so I had to console myself with the BBQ put on by the scouts.

Mens Pairs:
2nd: Jim and Erin {Team = TripleDouble}
3rd: Neil and Ashley {Team = When Ash & Neil Kombine(WANK)}
5th: Ryan and David {Team = Baum}

Mixed Pairs:
6th: Steve and Jodie Clauson {Team = Pink Bits}

Full results.