Well its been run and won for another year, one of the biggest races on the calendar and unofficial season wind up, the Dusk til Dawn 12hr at Langford Park, Jarrahdale.
What an amazing night, the first and second laps were 'lit up' by an early evening thunderstorm which provided enough rain to keep the track from getting too dusty until fairly late into the event. After about 3 hours or so though the weather cleared, the wind dropped off and conditions were perfect for a ride through the night.
Our 'sponsors tent' was inhabited by an eclectic mix of racers. From the 'fastest lap of the night' Reece Tucknott and his powerful 4 man team from Wembley Cycles who posted the most laps on the night and owned the 7 fastest laps for the whole evening, to Solo grinders Jamie Burton and Dave Whiteway. We also had the Trustec team of the Beck's plus Mikey who took out 2nd place in mixed quads and infected as all with their boundless enthusiasm and energy even at 3 in the morning and the Wembley Cycles employees team of Mitch, Rex and Theo. The atmosphere around the tent was great all night long so thanks to you all.
The 13km course was a good mixture of distance, technical single track and had a rather nasty climb just a few km's from the end that I found myself dreading for most of each lap. As is typical of Langford park, the single track was mostly smooth and fast flowing which put a smile on my face, even early Sunday morning. There was one particularly tight and bumpy part just after a fire road section that did have me using some potty mouth as I tried to squeeze my 710mm handlebars between the trees.
My choice of the Niner SIR9 hartail 29er was perfect for the Dusk til Dawn's fast track. The excellent handling in quicker sections and 'power to the ground' efficiency matched to Niner's compliant steel frame to make for a great endurance race MTB.
I'd like to thank Dirtworks Australia, Niner's Australian distributor for helping us out and allowing us to supply this year's winners of Men's and Women's solo with a Niner MCR9 and SIR9 respectivly. Congratulations to Mel and Jason!
Also well done and thankyou to the organising committee, especially Ash and Nathan for all their hard work over the last couple of months and on the night. The whole night seemed to run seamlessly although I'm sure from their perspective it was probably less calm. This is a great event and Liberty Bikes is proud to be associated with one of WA's great MTB races.
