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To cancel a day of racing is a tough decision to make but ultimatley not a hard decision. At the end of the day rider safety always comes first. With the valley floor shrouded in heavy cloud and rain limiting our medi-evac options we had to call the racing off for the day. The NZ Enduro is a wild backcountry point to point enduro race, today riders would have been some kilometres from any vehicle accessible road and above 1000m in wet and near freezing conditions. We simply could not take the risk. Then there are the secondary but almost equally important things like trail degradation and marshal safety (they would have been doing a full day in near zero wet and windy conditions with no shelter)
When the call was made and relayed to the racers we were worried about how the riders would react but after some spontaneous happy cheers we knew we had made the right call. It was a long wet day yesterday, but at much lower altitudes, with multiple evacuation access points and a sheltered lunch spot where riders were able to dry off, eat and warm up before moving on. In other words a very different situation from what we would have experienced today.
With a truck load of prizes (literally) to award to the winners in each class we took over the the Canvastown Town Hall and begun the festivities.
In Master men Nick Sutcliff bested Michael Broderick and Jonny Waghorn for top honours.In Open women it was Mel Blomfield over Renee Wilson and Anja Macdonald.
In Open Men Byron Scott ahead of Charles Jones and Tristan Rawlance.
After two days of racing Ines Thoma held off Claire Hassenfratz by less than two seconds withBex Baraona in third.Damien Oton kept late charging Mark Scott at bay with Joe Nation surprising a few by just managing to pip Jerome Clementz by a second and a half for third place.
We wrapped up with a fun raffle and raised $2500 for Marlborough MTB club ending on a positive note with a great lunch some Moa beers to finish. Hold thumbs for better weather next year.
