Some of us rode the Kowalski Classic and enjoyed some new trails built by James and the K-Bros.
The forecast was for zero degrees start, but arriving at the forrest it seemed slightly warmer and the sun was rising before the start and it packed enough heat to only need under shirt & arm warmer as extras.
Spending the morning in Kowen and then Sparrow was a hoot, awesome temperature and brilliant tracks.

Lining up for the start it looked like it may well be my day, seeing my main competitor Gary James was nowhere to be seen, then with 30 seconds to spare he come screaming down the hill and joins the line-up…doh, hard day ahead.
First they sent us up the fence line climb for a loooong way, I started at the front up the hill only to be passed by many from the same wave before we reached the single-track. Luckily the group that did end up in front of me all had very similar speed and ability so we didn’t really have any traffic issues… nicely seeding guys!
Ash, or officially Rusty, had gone ahead and formed a small group that included Gary James, took me about 30km to catch that group, but just then there was some nasty climbing and I could not hold their wheels, except for some areas where there were huge switch backs, I didn’t see Gary again.
I think Ash was using the organisers recommendation of how to pass people to the letter and yelled things like “look at my plate, I’m Rusty Reid, so get the F#$k out of my way and let me pass you dick h…!” seemed to work.
Ash rode really well but slowed a fraction towards the end of the 50km loop and I caught him at the HQ feed zone, and proceeded to try and catch back up to Gary. A few people along the way would inform me that Gary was only a minute or so ahead,damn… pushing my legs to the limit all the way, then at 15km to go the legs had had enough and I had to give up any hope of a top spot finish rolling in 7 minutes behind Gary for 2nd in Super Masters.

Brooke rode the 50km and took top spot in the Female overall, then there were guest 3fidi’s Anne Napier and Ron’s daughter Milly Brent who both rode the Full 90km race and podiumed 2nd and 3rd in their respective categories 🙂

There was truly a ton of single-track, with only very short little fire-roads thrown in, and with no traffic issues at all, this was perfect.
James’ Escalator is fun and hard at the same time, as it appeared soon after you’d partly fried your legs already chasing other riders.

Talking about James, he rode Sweep on the 50km event and ended up walking in the last few kilometres as his back wheel had seized or de-lodged, and when he arrived at the finish we realised it was just his 15mm skewer that had worked itself loose and had popped out of the drive-side, a realign and wind up fixed it completely… could have done that on the track 🙂

Results:
Bleeksie – 2nd Super Masters (27th overall) Full 4:39
Ash – 21st Masters Male (72nd overall) Full 5:03
Brooke – 1st Open Female (30th overall) 50km 2:40