Last weekend was the opening round of the Jayco MTBA Australian Mountain Bike Series in Hobart, Tasmania. As usual for Hobart the track was pretty fun, nothing very tricky or steep, but a solid hit out none the less. The later start to the series this year meant a much greater presence of international riders like Dan Mac, Lach Norris, and Cooper who have typically sat out the first couple of rounds in previous years.
Aiden Lefmann took an early lead when he took off solo on the first lap. I found my self in a chasing group with Macca, Hendo, Cooper, Vandy and Lach for the first couple of laps with Ben Mather eventually heading off to chase Aido. I felt fairly comfortable with the pace, which is a promising sign for me. On lap 3 Macca stepped it up and no one could go with him. I dug pretty deep to stay with him but in hindsight probably consumed a bit much, and started to fade. It wasn't long before I lost contact with Hendo and Cooper, and AJ came past me too. For the second half of the race I just tried to keep plugging away. I caught and past the blown Aido, but had Carlso in the rear view mirror on the last climb. With only a long descent to go, and a about a 5 second gap, normally i would be quite confident in my ability to defend the position...but this was Carlso (can ride a bike downhills). I won't say that I panicked, but I was certainly ready to. In the end Carlso made a mistake and I was fine, but as i came into the finishing straight I realised that I nearly caught Hendo.
Macca eventually took the win with AJ second and Mather 3rd. I was reasonably happy with my ride for 8th; the number is a little higher than I like but the time gaps were small so it is not the end of the world.
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