Unwinding With Singletrack Mind Awaba

Held at the people’s favourite trail, Awaba, we finally got our chance to ride the flowing lines that this trail is well known for in Round 8 1/4 of the SRAM Singletrack Mind Series.

After a number of rained out attempts through out the year it wasn’t just the crew from Chocolate Foot that had their fingers crossed for some fine weather.

With a record cool start to summer everyone was hoping for a clear few days so the trail would be in perfect nick and vehicular access to the trail would be achievable.

The trail was in good form with just a few possible damp spots, like if you were still hugging the ground after a certain fast fire-trail down-hill run.

There were a couple of sandy corners and sections that may have caught out a rider or two but the remainder of the course remained hard-packed and mostly grippy.

Once again the Camel Back climb forced some riders off their bikes, not many riders were going to be able to claim a full lap in the big ring.

I enjoyed my race, making the most of all the descents and just pottering back up the hills. With this being the last event for me for the year (others will be attempting a new event, a NYE 8hr Enduro at Jindabyne, Wicked Wombat), I was out just out to enjoy myself.

With a new big-ring fitted a week ago my SRAM adorned Yeti ASR worked flawlessly. I have to thank Enduro Pulse and our sponsors for their ongoing support.

At the pointy end of the solo field Jason English had pushed off the front leaving Andrew Hall and Ed McDonald to sort out the minor placings. When I caught up with Andrew for a chat on course in the final hour, he mentioned that he was having much more fun not worrying about the lead.

With in excess of seven hours riding virtually without any company Andrew was happy to have someone to chat with. I was riding at Threshold and was struggling to return the banter.

Andrew finished in second and Ed, on his SS, a credible third, both would go on to place first and second respectively for the series.

The Chocolate Foot crew once again have brought us a great SRAM Singletrack Mind series, highlights which include, Round 6 at Rydal on the fresh new Lithgow trails, a tacky Round 4 on the superb Wingello trails, but who could forget Round 2 on the hero dirt that is Coondoo. Catch you all next year for more MTBing fun.

Photos: theroostmag.com.au

Event website: chocolatefoot.com.au