Saturday - day 2 of the World Cup weekend has seen some real highs and lows. The course looks amazing with all the tape and branding, add in the sunshine, bright blue skies and dusty, rocky trails and you could be mistaken for thinking you're in the Alps!
Catching a glimpse of the last offical practice session was both inspiring and humbling - the speed and and skills of the riders is amazing. Fingers crossed I'll get a chance to see some racing action tomorrow.
The Dalby Dare saw a real cross section of riders take on the World Cup course, with xcracer.com / 29er Niall Frost and mtb legend Thomas Frischknecht leading the 200 riders home! Also on the course were Gunn-Rita and Bart Brentjens. A chance to ride a lap of the course with Olympic and World Champions - pretty damn cool!
With all the travel chaos, there have been lots of tales of mission impossible journeys by the pro's to get here. Apparently Mary McConneloug and Mike Broderick (Kenda Seven NoTubes) arrive at 11pm tonight and will ride the course blind tomorrow. Hardcore!
Not as much luck for two of our own elite riders though - Mel Alexander and Maddie Horton were enjoying the course yesterday, but crashed hard today...
Random conversation of the day was with a Yorkshire TV crew who spotted my radio and offical clothing. "where can we find Julien Absalon?" (3hrs after practise had finished) "Errr, back at his hotel with his feet up?"