I lined up on the start line with the Enduro men, the biggest class of the PNP with around 40 entrants, I was near the back but after the start count down completed I sped up to the group in front. I entered the fire break road with the leading bunch and raced to the top, some people dropped off but I remained at the front. It was a tough climb and my lungs exploded with pain - I guess that's what having a cold does to you. There were some steep pinch climbs near the top where I jumped off my bike and ran up as did others. Then we were at the top.
We were all neck and neck, about 4 of us, we weren't in front though, there was a guy further ahead we were chasing.
We followed the ridgeline to the start of Labyrinth track, I was 4th to enter in our chasing group and then at that point everyone seemed to slow down. The racer in front of me was very slow down Labyrinth and almost came to stand-stills on the 180 degree corners, though there wasn't much room for passing he would let me through either. Unfortunately a whole lot of riders had caught up to me as well. The guy finally let me through and a couple of others when we got to Snail trail. I barreled down the track but quickly caught up to the leading group, a 1 guy let me through and then there were no more places to pass. We go to the bermed switchbacks and I was hard on the tail of the rider in front and then from out of nowhere Tryfan with his bike flew over our heads and landed in front of us, he had hit a kicker on one of the corners, it was the most amazing thing I have even seen before my eyes in a race!!
At the bottom of Snail Trail Tryfan indicated the shortcut we were allowed to take and I followed him down there, everyone else went straight ahead. I am not sure if it was much of a shortcut for me as I believe I lost a couple of positions.
I then raced the rest of the race without seeing any of that leading group, I caught up with Tryfan though and rode a section of the race with him.
I dropped my seat for B-Line which im glad I did as this aided to a quick decent and later on I dropped my seat again for Spoonhill which was very muddy and rough.
I sprinted across the finish getting a 5th placing with 1:21:42, it was a close finish for the top 5. It felt like it had been a good race for me and I had enjoyed it more than Makara, though today my cough is worse than it was :(
