Stage 3.

Just when we thought it couldn’t get any better, it did! Today was definitely the best stage. There was a lot of tight twisty single track; some super steep, rocky technical climbs; and fast, rocky descents with drop offs. Kristine and I were beaming from ear to ear the whole way :D We’re getting on really well as a team and we’re working to each others strengths. To add to the fun the leading mixed pairs team comprising of Josh Ibett (Torq) and Cait Elliot (WXC) joined us for a long time. They too are working really well together and are comfortably leading their category.

I’m riding my new Canyon hard tail for the first time ever in this race and I love it! The super skinny Ritchey carbon seat post and the fat tyres (2.2 Continental race king on the rear and 2.4 X King on the front) make it a really comfy ride, even on these gnarly trails. As always, I’m running protection tyres tubeless with stans milk and this seems to be working well.

Today we both had a couple of tumbles: Kristine fell in a huge bog in a cow field and I fell in a thorn bush (I’m still pulling out thorns now!). This added to our amusement and gave us more to laugh about :D

At 60km we were both absolutely desperate for the toilet. This gave us the motivation to ride as fast as we could to the finish line, where we immediately handed our bikes to the camera man and reporter while to their amusement (and all of the spectators!) we headed for the nearest bush. Phew! Another excellent day in the saddle :)

We won the stage again today and I think we now have a good lead. Fingers crossed for tomorrow.