Going into the night stage I had a pretty significant time gap to the boys in front and the boys behind. I was sort of under the impression from the start that Aido and Blairy would work together to catch me down if I got ahead. I was a little suprised as to how far they went to ensure I couldn't get to the front. The course is basically 2km of fireroad at the start and finish with no overtaking anywhere else on course.
Heading out on the firetrail I tried a couple of times to get past however the boys seemed to take up both paths of the trail to prevent me getting past. Once in the single track the pace backed right off. Andy was just riding a casual pace and we had quite a few riders who caught back up. At one stage in the single track a small gap opened between Aido and Blairy and I saw an easy chance to sneak up a place. I guess Aido was pretty keen to block me from getting through so accelerated to close the gap to stop me getting through. The rest of the single track I was keen to be racing not just being blocked behind these guys. With about 5km I was anticipating riding the A line around one of the corners. As I hoped the boys took the B line and I managed to get to the front. With 5km to go and most of that being fireroad there was no real point trying to get away. I gave it a bit of a go either way and the riders seemed to spread out behind. I was actually feeling really good, then the cord to my front light came out. I felt like both my light had gone out! I then rode quite sensibly down the final decent using Andy's light. On the final firetrail and we had a group of four of us together. Ryan Standish tried to lead me out but in the dark managed to lead out Andy for the win and I rolled across second! I bit of a frustrating race, but I do love riding in the dark. I cant wait until they run a 24hr race out here.
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