Well the first year we were here Lachlan’s first mountain bike race was the Pukete Spaghetti – the race run byHamilton Mountain Bike Club of which we have been members since we arrived here.  Lachlan was taken under someone’s wing and raced in the six hour event as part of a team. He has raced in it every year since then either in a team or solo.  Gus rode two years ago in a team of  boys of similar ages but last year the race was cancelled.

The 9km course is pretty much the same as we ride (I say “we”, but I haven’t ridden this year at all for one reason or another) every week; it is quite gnarly, lots of bends and wiggles (hence the Spaghetti!) and quite a lot of uphill.  Gus was going to ride with some friends but in typical thirteen yr old boy fashion, they just didn’t get themselves organised.  So at the eleventh hour we entered Gus in the three hour solo U17 race just so he could get out and ride as well as to support the club.

Well, “the boy done good”!  He managed five laps in three hours of continuous riding which we reckon is pretty impressive.  Well done, Gus!  The benefit of a small competition is that there is more chance of winning something; there were only two boys in his division and the other one seemed like he was a good couple of years older, bigger and stronger than Gus, so Gus was second! He also won a spot prize, so came away with a $10 voucher for Velo Expresso, a tin of Spaghetti and a tyre! A good day out!